Former Meta engineer sues social media giant over alleged suppression of Palestinian content
Hamad has sued Meta in a California state court for wrongful termination and discrimination and other wrongdoing after he was asked to leave in February.
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Former Meta engineer Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American has sued the giant, claiming that the company fired him for trying to fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinian Instagram posts.
Hamad has sued Meta in a California state court for wrongful termination and discrimination and other wrongdoing after he was asked to leave in February.
Hamad in his complaint, accused Meta of bias against Palestinians and said that the company deleted internal employee communications that included information of the deaths of their relatives in Gaza carried out investigations over their use of the Palestinian flag emoji.
The lawsuit also stated that Meta conducted no investigations over employees posting the Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar situations.
Human rights groups for long have criticised Meta’s moderation on content related to Israel and Palestine. There has also been criticism regarding an external investigation that Meta commissioned in 2021. Hamad’s claims include all of the above mentioned points. Close to 200 of Meta’s employees raised concerns in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other execs of the org earlier this year, accusing the company that it was suppressing posts in support for Palestinians affected by the war.
