MENLO PARK: A former Meta engineer has accused the firm of discrimination in its handling of content linked to the conflict in Gaza, claiming in a lawsuit that Meta fired him for attempting to help fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinian Instagram posts.
Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who had been on firm’s machine learning team since 2021, filed a case against the social media giant in a California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination and other wrongdoing over his February removal.
In the complaint, he alleged Meta of a pattern of bias against Palestinian people, adding the company removed internal employee communications that mentioned the deaths of their relatives in the Gaza Strip and conducted probs into their use of the Palestinian flag emoji.
The social media giant launched no such probs for employees posting Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts, the lawsuit said. However, Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Hamad’s claims.
Hamad’s remarks reflect longstanding criticisms by human rights groups over Meta’s performance moderating the content uploaded to its platforms about the Palestinian and Israel territories, including in an external probe the company commissioned in 2021.
Since the outbreak of war last year, the firm has faced allegations that it was suppressing expressions of support for Palestinian people living amid the conflict. The war erupted in the Strip after Hamas attacked inside Israel on Oct 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking over 250 people hostages, Israel claimed. Gaza Health Ministry said that more than 36,000 people have been killed in Israel offensive in Gaza since October 7.
About 200 Meta employees raised similar concerns in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, and other officials earlier this year.
Hamad stated that his firing appeared to stem from an incident in December involving an emergency mechanism designed to troubleshoot severe issues with the company’s platforms, known within Meta as an SEV.
He had also noted procedural irregularities in the handling of an SEV linked to restrictions on content posted by Palestinians on Instagram that stopped the posts from appearing in feeds and searches, the complaint added.
In one case, the complaint also alleged, he found that a short video posted by the Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza had also been misclassified as pornographic even though it showed a destroyed compound in the Gaza Strip.
