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Google's latest legal opponents: Shooting victims' families – and a cheesed-off ex-manager

Web giant fends off lawsuits from all corners this week

Families of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, earlier this year are suing Google for failing to take down online materials they say influenced the killer.

The complaint, filed in the US Eastern Michigan District Court on Monday, claims the internet advertising titan – plus Facebook and Twitter – knowingly allowed ISIS and other terror bastards to use their platforms to spread recruiting materials.

"For years, Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits," the suit claims.

"This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out or cause to be carried out numerous terrorist attacks, including the June 12, 2016 attack in Orlando where 53 were injured and 49 were killed."

The filing goes on to claim that the rise of the terrorist groups would not have been possible without Twitter, Facebook and Google, and that the the companies have opposed requests to take down the materials.

The plaintiffs accuse the three social media giants of providing material support for the attacks and are asking that the court award damages accordingly.

Meanwhile, Google is also facing a lawsuit in California from a former Nest employee. That legal challenge accuses the Chocolate Factory of breaching state labor laws by encouraging employees to spy on one another and rat each other out to bosses, in order to clamp down on whistleblowers and news leakers.

The unnamed ex-product manager is reported to be the same ex-Nestie whose complaint led to an investigation of the Silicon Valley lynchpin by the US National Labor Relations Board regarding possible unlawful surveillance and interrogation of workers. ®

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