A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit against Meta, in which a woman alleged that Facebook’s algorithm played a role in the radicalization of Dylann Roof, who carried out a racially motivated mass shooting at a Charleston church.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed all findings from a federal court in South Carolina, which had previously dismissed the case. The plaintiff, whose father was among the nine victims killed in the 2015 attack, argued that Facebook’s algorithm prioritized divisive and extremist content for Roof to increase user engagement. According to the lawsuit, these recommendations led him to join extremist groups.
