Former Meta employee sues company, says he was fired after raising Israel-Gaza censorship concerns
A Palestinian American software engineer sued Meta this week alleging the social media company discriminated against him and unlawfully fired him.
A Palestinian American software engineer sued Meta this week alleging the social media company discriminated against him and unlawfully fired him in retaliation after he investigated user allegations that the company was censoring Palestinian creators and activists.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday said the engineer, Ferras Hamad, “was scrutinized, interrogated, and terminated because he was of Palestinian national origin and/or Muslim,” and, they added, because he was investigating the censorship claims. He was fired in February despite the investigations being part of his job, according to the suit.
Hamad “is simply the latest victim” of the company’s “chronic” and “consistent anti-Palestinian bias,” the lawsuit says.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, said in a statement Wednesday that the firing was about “data access policies,” not bias.
“The employee was dismissed for violating Meta’s data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination,” the company said.
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