TOO DANGEROUS TO EXIST: HOLDING COMPROMISED INTERNET PLATFORMS STRICTLY LIABLE UNDER THE DOCTRINE OF ABNORMALLY DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES
In July 2020, the Twitter accounts of several prominent public figures were compromised. The maximally high profile of these targets raises the possibility of severe physical, or, more likely, economic damages from the fallout of these security failures. Because compromises of this type are foreseeable and inevitable in the context of software security, and because there is no feasible avenue for seeking damages for the resulting purely economic losses, a new scheme for relief is needed. This Article proposes that the doctrine of strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities be applied to internet platforms whose inevitable compromises are situated to proximately cause catastrophic economic damages. This application of strict liability is measured against policy goals, and common-law obstacles to its adoption are discussed.
Author: Jordan Glassman
PDF: http://journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/12/NCJOLT-Vol.22.2_5_Glassman.pdf
Volume 22, Issue 2