On Tuesday, a former Meta engineer sued the business for bias in its processing of Gaza-related information, alleging Meta fired him for seeking to repair issues that suppressed Palestinian Instagram postings
Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who had been a member of Meta’s machine learning team since 2021, filed a lawsuit against the social media titan in a California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination, and other misconduct concerning his dismissal in February.
Hamad accused Meta of a pattern of prejudice against Palestinians in the complaint, alleging that the company deleted internal employee communications that referenced the deaths of their relatives in Gaza and conducted investigations into their use of the Palestinian flag emoji.
According to the lawsuit, the company did not initiate any such investigations regarding employees who posted emoticons of the Israeli or Ukrainian flag in comparable contexts.
Hamad’s allegations are consistent with the long-standing criticisms of Meta’s performance by human rights organizations regarding the content posted on its platforms regarding Israel and the Palestinian territories.
This criticism was also the subject of an external investigation that Meta commissioned in 2021.
According to Israeli tallies, conflict ensued in Gaza on October 7 following an attack by Hamas militants inside Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 individuals and the holding of more than 250 others.
In response, Israel initiated an offensive in Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of over 36,000 individuals, as reported by Gaza health officials, and has precipitated a humanitarian crisis.
The company has been accused of suppressing expressions of support for Palestinians living amid the conflict since the war began last year.
In an open letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders earlier this year, nearly 200 Meta employees expressed comparable concerns.
Hamad claimed that his termination was precipitated by an incident in December related to an emergency procedure intended to address grievous issues with the company’s platforms.
This procedure is called a SEV or “site event,” within Meta. The complaint stated that he had observed procedural irregularities in managing a SEV associated with restrictions on the content posted by Palestinian Instagram personalities.
These restrictions prevented the posts from appearing in searches and feeds.
In one instance, the complaint claimed, he discovered that a brief video posted by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza had been falsely classified as pornographic even though it depicted a demolished building in Gaza.
Hamad stated that he had previously worked on similarly sensitive SEVs, including those associated with Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine, and that he had received conflicting guidance from other employees regarding the status of the SEV and whether he was authorized to assist in its resolution.
He stated that his manager subsequently verified in writing that the SEV was a component of his job responsibilities.
After learning that he was under investigation from a Meta representative, according to Hamad, he filed an internal discrimination complaint the following month.
He was subsequently terminated a few days later. Meta informed Hamad that he had been terminated for violating a policy that prohibited employees from working on matters involving individuals they knew personally.
This policy was about Azaiza, the photojournalist. Hamad stated that he did not have any personal relationship with Aziza.