Attorneys for Harper Moyski's family say YouTube could have prevented Annunciation shooting
Professor Jeff Kosseff was interviewed about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
MINNEAPOLIS — The family of Harper Moyski, one of two children killed in the Annunciation School shooting on Aug. 27, 2025, is considering a lawsuit alleging YouTube and Facepunch Studios, the developer of the video game Garry's Mod, could have helped prevent the shooting but did not act.
Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, were killed in the shooting, and 29 others were injured. Moyski's family is represented by civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers of The Strom Law Firm and Greg Francis of Osborne, Francis and Pettis. In a news release, they said the shooter posted multiple YouTube videos promoting violent ideologies that glorified firearms and racism. The attorneys said the videos, which were scheduled ahead of time to go public the day of the shooting, included a violent manifesto and an apparent diagram of the Annunciation church. The attorneys said YouTube had this information before the shooting and failed to notify authorities.
"The family feels very strongly that more could've been done, more should've been done, with these videos that were posted, uploaded to YouTube," Francis said. "There are safety protocols that should've been in place."
Francis said the investigation is in its early stages, as he and his team work to piece together the timeline of what happened and when the platforms were made aware of the posts. Francis also named Garry's Mod and its owner, Facepunch Studios, which he said allows people to plan violent behavior and share that information with other users. He said he believes the shooter at Annunciation used the platform and is investigating when, how and to what extent.
Jeff Kosseff, a University of Minnesota professor who teaches media law and ethics and has written a book on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, said suing online platforms is "a steep uphill climb." Kosseff has no connection to this specific case.
Section 230, passed by Congress in 1996, generally protects platforms from liability for content users post. "If I were to go onto social media and post something defamatory about you, you could sue me but you can't sue the platform where I posted it," Kosseff said.
If a case got past Section 230, Kosseff said, discovery could reveal whether anyone at the company knew of the content, such as through user complaints or escalations to a review team. He said platforms set their own policies on removing content and reporting it to law enforcement.
In the release, Harper's parents, Jackie Flavin and Michael Moyski, said that, "Harper was pure joy and hope." They said knowing YouTube "could have saved her life but chose not to is more than any parent could bear."
YouTube and Facepunch Studios did not respond to requests for comment.