Complicity of Social Media Companies in Inciting Genocide Hakim explicitly calls for genocide or implicit statements that, in their cultural context, are understood as calls for genocide.115 International courts especially consider systematic propaganda campaigns, in addition to individual statements, as satisfying incitement; however, in analyzing campaigns they are less likely to convict the propagandist’s deputies. III. M ODES OF L IABILITY In addition to the principal perpetrator of a crime, ICL allows for the prosecution of other actors for the same crime through various modes of liability. This Section examines two modes which may impose liability on the employees of social media companies, aiding and abetting liability and common purpose liability. Aiding and abetting extends criminal liability to those who assist in a crime. Common purpose liability—a relatively new form of liability created by the Rome Statute—functions similarly to aiding and abetting, when the crime has been committed by a group. This Comment therefore considers both modes to be variations of complicity. Article 25 of the Rome Statute explicates their requirements, which control for the purpose of ICC jurisprudence. After discussing aiding and abetting and common purpose liability, this Section examines complicity in incitement. A. Aiding and Abetting Aiding and abetting liability has long been a feature of ICL.116 According to Doug Cassel, the doctrine dates back to the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal, which imposed liability on “accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit” a crime listed in the Charter.117 Aiding and abetting is also captured in Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute which states, In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person . . . [f]or the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in the commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission.118 115 116 117 118 Id. Doug Cassel, Corporate Aiding and Abetting of Human Rights Violations: Confusion in the Courts, 6 NW. U. J. INT’L HUM. RTS. 304, 307 (2008). Id. (quoting the U.N. Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Annex to the Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, Aug. 8, 1945, 82 U.N.T.S. 79 (Nuremberg Charter)). Rome Statute, supra note 29, at art. 25(3)(c). Summer 2020 99