The father of a woman who was killed in the Paris attacks in November last year has filed a lawsuit against Google, Facebook and Twitter, alleging that these social media companies provided a platform for terror groups and their supporters to spread their ideology. Reynaldo Gonzalez filed the complaint in the US District Court in the Northern District of California, reported IANS.

He accused the three companies of “knowingly permitting” the Islamic State group to spread their propaganda, hire more members and raise funds. Gonzalez's daughter Nohemi was among the 130 people killed on November 13.

Both Facebook and Twitter published statements on Wednesday, claiming Gonzalez's complaint has no merit and cited their policies against extremist material.

The Wall Street Journal reported that internet companies in the US are not responsible for the posts that are put up by users. Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

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Lawyer Ari Kresch, who is part of Gonzalez's team, clarified that the complaint was against the social media companies for fostering such behaviour and not against what the terror outfits published.

Twitter is facing another similar lawsuit. A woman who lost her husband in a terrorist attack last year filed a complaint against the microblogging site in January accusing it of supporting the IS and sued Twitter for damages.