A former Meta engineer has sued his former company for wrongful termination, claiming he was fired after researching pro-Palestinian content as part of his job.
According to the criminal complaint, Feras Hamad worked as a software engineer at Meta and was tasked with overseeing Instagram’s content filters related to the war in Gaza and Ukraine. Lawsuit filed The company filed the lawsuit against Instagram’s parent company, Meta, in a Santa Clara, California, court on Tuesday.
His role focused on investigating “significant issues” (also known as SEVs) on online platforms, and the lawsuit alleges that Mehta fired him because he questioned his Palestinian background and the way the company handled the Instagram accounts of Palestinian photojournalists.
“Specifically, Plaintiff was scrutinized, interrogated, and fired because of his Palestinian nationality and/or Muslim identity while investigating a special criminal case involving one of the most prominent Palestinian photojournalists during the Gaza conflict,” the complaint states.
“Plaintiff did not receive similar scrutiny, questioning, or adverse employment actions when responding to special interest abuses related to Ukraine and other global situations,” the complaint adds.
In a statement, Meta said Hamad was “terminated for violating Meta’s data access policies. We make it clear to our employees that any violations will result in immediate termination.”
The photojournalist’s account was mistakenly labeled “pornographic,” according to the lawsuit, and Hamad’s manager initially told him the issue did not violate company policy and was dealt with appropriately.
The lawsuit alleges that Hamad was fired by Meta on Feb. 2 in connection with a “violation of the user data access policy.” Meta said Hamad may have personally known the photojournalist, who has more than 17 million followers, according to the lawsuit.
“Even though Plaintiff’s manager confirmed that Plaintiff acted correctly and META’s security operations personnel clearly stated that Plaintiff had not violated META’s user data access policies, Plaintiff was fired,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint said it was “highly unlikely” that Hamad knew the photojournalist because he had never been to Gaza and was born in the United States.
“In reality, Plaintiffs are merely the latest victims of META’s ruthless, chronic and consistent anti-Palestinian bias,” the lawsuit states.
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