(FeaturedNews.com) – In New York, Erie Supreme Court Judge Paula L Feroleto ruled that several social media companies would be allowed to face lawsuits brought forward by the Buffalo grocery store shooting survivors’ families.
The judge had determined that the lawsuits could go through against Reddit, Meta, and YouTube as many defendants are holding them accountable for having enabled shooter Payton Gendron, when he opened fire in the grocery store causing the death of 10 people. The Tops Friendly Markets shooting which occurred on May 14, 2022, is considered a racially motivated shooting.
The Judge wrote in her order where she rejected the motions to dismiss that currently, the Court is just basing the ruling on the allegations of the complaint and not on the “facts” that have been presented during oral argument by the defendants.
The plaintiffs in this case include family members of both survivors and victims of the shooting who have claimed that these platforms had “harmfully designed ‘products’” which allowed Gendorn access to the required items. They argued that due to this these companies are “liable” on the basis of “product liability theory.”
Last year, Gendron was sentenced to life in prison. In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to domestic terrorism and state murder charges. The lawsuit against the social media companies was brought forward last year and had argued that they had given the shooter the platform that had allowed him to engage with these racist and violent ideas.
Copyright 2024, FeaturedNews.com
