• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 11, 2016

Tamara Fields, the widow of a man who was killed by a terrorist in Jordan, recently sued Twitter for allegedly enabling the growth of ISIS.

"For years, Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits,” Fields alleged in a lawsuit filed in January in San Francisco federal court.

This week, Twitter asked U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick to dismiss the case. The company argues that the allegations in the complaint fall short of connecting Fields' death to Twitter.

"Mr. Fields’ death is heartrending, and the attack that killed him is appalling. But nothing that Twitter allegedly did can plausibly be said to have 'led directly' to that horrible crime," the microblogging platform says.

Twitter adds that the complaint doesn't allege that the shooter used Twitter to plan or carry out the attack that killed Fields, or even that the shooter had an account with the service.

Twitter also suggests that allowing this lawsuit to proceed could leave other Web companies more vulnerable to litigation. Fields' "breathtakingly broad and remarkably attenuated" theories of liability "potentially expose every Internet service provider to liability for horrible crimes committed anywhere in the world, not only by their users but even by individuals who were loosely affiliated with or even just inspired by those users," Twitter argues.

Twitter, which is represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman, also points out that the federal Communications Decency Act provides that Web platforms aren't responsible for crimes committed by users.

As tragic as Fields' death is, it's obviously a huge stretch to try to hold Twitter responsible. In fact, numerous judges throughout the country have already ruled that other Web companies -- including Backpage, Craigslist, Facebook and MySpace -- aren't responsible when their platforms are used to commit crimes.

Even though Twitter is fighting the lawsuit, the company also is now policing its service more aggressively. Last month, the company announced a new push to take down accounts associated with terrorism. The company said that since 2015, it has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorism.