Lawyers filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Facebook Inc.,
alleging it allowed the Palestinian militant Hamas group to use the
platform to plot attacks that killed four Americans and wounded one
in Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
“Facebook has knowingly provided material support and resources
to Hamas in the form of Facebook’s online social network platform
and communication services,” making it liable for the violence
against the five Americans, according to the lawsuit sent to
Bloomberg by the office of the Israeli lawyer on the case, Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner.
“Simply put, Hamas uses Facebook as a tool for engaging in
terrorism,” it said.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.,
European Union and Israel. The suit said the group used Facebook to
share operational and tactical information with members and
followers, posting notices of upcoming demonstrations, road
closures, Israeli military actions and instructions to operatives to
carry out the attacks.
Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas leader, said by phone that “suing
Facebook clearly shows the American policy of fighting freedom of
the press and expression” and is evidence of U.S. prejudice against
the group and “its just cause.”
Facebook wants “people to feel safe when using Facebook. There is
no place for content encouraging violence, direct threats, terrorism
or hate speech on Facebook,” the company said in a response to a
request for comment on the case. “We have a set of Community
Standards to help people understand what is allowed on Facebook, and
we urge people to use our reporting tools if they find content that
they believe violates our standards so we can investigate and take
swift action.”
In March Facebook took down a page promoting a new
Palestinian uprising against Israel because it made “direct
calls for violence,” in violation of company polices.
Gabriel Weimann, an expert on terrorism on the internet at
Haifa University, said technology would be more effective than
litigation in discouraging the use of social media for violent
purposes. The focus should be on developing faster ways to
detect problematic messages so they can be blocked immediately
before they go viral, he said.
“Facebook isn’t the only platform,” he said. “There are
plenty of others. What will you do? Sue them all?”
The suit was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York on July 10. Plaintiffs include the
families of Yaakov Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old abducted and
murdered in June 2014 after hitching a ride in the West Bank,
and 3-year-old Chaya Braun, whose stroller was struck
intentionally by a Palestinian driver in October 2014 at a train
station in Jerusalem.
In February 2015, a jury at the same court concluded that the
Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization
aided in six attacks on Americans in Israel more than a decade
ago, and ordered them to pay $218.5 million to the victims and
their families. The damages were tripled under a U.S.
anti-terrorism law.
The Palestinian bodies claimed they weren’t responsible for
the unapproved acts of low-level employees who participated in
the attacks.
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