Katie Paul and Jessica DiNapoli
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former Meta (NASDAQ:) engineer on Tuesday accused the company of bias in its handling of content related to the Gaza war, saying in a lawsuit that Meta fired him for trying to help correct mistakes that caused the closure of Palestinian posts in Instagram.
Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who has worked on Meta’s machine learning team since 2021, sued the social media giant in California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination and other offenses over his firing in February.
In the complaint, Hamad accused Mehta of being biased against Palestinians, saying the company deleted internal messages from employees that mentioned the deaths of their relatives in Gaza and investigated their use of Palestinian flag emojis.
According to the lawsuit, the company did not conduct similar investigations into employees posting Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts.
Mehta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Hamad’s allegations.
Hamad’s statements reflect long-standing criticism from human rights groups over Meta’s efforts to moderate content posted on its platforms about Israel and the Palestinian territories, including in an external investigation the company commissioned in 2021.
The conflict erupted in the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli data. In response, Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 36,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
Since the war began last year, the company has faced accusations that it is suppressing expressions of support for Palestinians living in war.
About 200 Meta employees expressed similar concerns in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders earlier this year.
Hamad said his dismissal appears to be related to an incident in December involving an emergency procedure designed to fix serious problems with the company’s platforms, known in Meta as a SEV, or “on-site event.”
He noted procedural violations in the processing of SEVs related to restrictions on content posted by Palestinian personalities on Instagram, which resulted in posts not appearing in search results and feeds, the complaint states.
In one case, the complaint alleges, he discovered that a short video posted by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza was misclassified as pornographic even though it showed a destroyed building in the Gaza Strip.
Hamad said he received conflicting instructions from other employees about the status of the SEV and whether he was authorized to help resolve the issue, although he had previously worked on similar confidential SEVs, including those related to Israel, Gaza and Ukraine. His manager later confirmed in writing that SEV was part of his job responsibilities, he said.
The next month, after a Meta representative told him he was being investigated, Hamad filed an internal discrimination complaint and was fired a few days later, he said.
Hamad said Mehta told him he was fired for violating a policy that prohibits employees from working on account problems for people they know personally, referring to Azaiza, the photojournalist. Hamad said he has no personal connection with Azaiza.