- Ex-Meta engineer Ferras Hamad sues Meta, claiming bias against Palestinian posts.
- Hamad alleges wrongful termination for addressing content suppression issues.
- The lawsuit highlights ongoing criticisms of Meta’s content moderation practices.
Former Meta engineer Ferras Hamad has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of bias in handling content related to the Gaza conflict. Hamad, who was dismissed in February, alleges Meta engaged in discrimination and wrongful termination after he addressed bugs that suppressed Palestinian Instagram posts.
Hamad, a Palestinian-American on Meta’s machine learning team since 2021, claims the company showed a pattern of bias against Palestinians. The lawsuit also states that Meta deleted internal communications mentioning deaths of employees’ relatives in Gaza and investigated the use of the Palestinian flag emoji, unlike similar probes for Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis.
The lawsuit references criticisms from human rights groups and findings from a 2021 external investigation commissioned by Meta regarding its moderation of content related to Israel and the Palestinian territories. An incident in December involving an emergency procedure to restrict content posted by Palestinian Instagram personalities is detailed, including Hamad’s discovery of a misclassified video by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza.
Despite receiving conflicting guidance and his manager’s confirmation that the incident was part of his job, Hamad was fired after filing an internal discrimination complaint. The lawsuit underscores ongoing concerns about Meta’s content moderation practices and alleged bias.
