Under 18 U. S. C. § 2333, United States nationals who have been “injured by reason of an act of international terrorism" may sue for damages. Following § 2333(a) they are not limited to suing the individual terrorists or organizations that directly carried out the attack, § 2333(d)(2) also imposes civil liability on “any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance, or who conspires with the person who committed such an act of international terrorism." However, this framework holds defendants only liable when they consciously and culpably “participate[d] in" a tortious act in such a way as to help “make it succeed." Plaintiffs allege only that defendants supplied generally available virtual platforms that ISIS made use of, and that defendants failed to stop ISIS despite knowing it was using those platforms. Given the lack of nexus between that assistance and the attack, the lack of any defendant intending to assist ISIS, and the lack of any sort of affirmative and culpable misconduct that would aid ISIS, plaintiffs’ claims fall far short of plausibly alleging that defendants aided and abetted the attack.
