In 2017, Abdulkadir Masharipov carried out a terrorist attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Masharipov killed Nawras Alassaf and 38 others. Alassaf’s family then brought this under the federal suit under Antiterrorism Act (ATA). That statute permits U. S. nationals who have been “injured . . . by reason of an act of international terrorism” to file a civil suit for damages. But instead of suing ISIS directly, the Alassaf’s family sued three of the largest social-media companies in the world—Facebook, Twitter and Google (which owns YouTube)—for aiding and abetting ISIS.
