A former Meta engineer has accused the company of bias in its handling of content related to the Gaza war, alleging he was fired for attempting to fix bugs that suppressed Palestinian Instagram posts. Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American who joined Meta’s machine learning team in 2021, has filed a lawsuit in California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination, and other grievances linked to his dismissal in February.
Hamad’s complaint outlines a pattern of bias against Palestinians within Meta. He claims the company deleted internal communications mentioning the deaths of employees’ relatives in Gaza and conducted investigations into the use of the Palestinian flag emoji by employees. In contrast, no such investigations were conducted for employees using Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts, according to the lawsuit.
Meta has not yet responded to Reuters’ request for comment on Hamad’s allegations. These claims echo long-standing criticisms from human rights groups regarding Meta’s moderation of content related to Israel and the Palestinian territories, an issue also highlighted in an external investigation commissioned by Meta in 2021.
The conflict in Gaza escalated following an attack by Hamas militants inside Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people and the taking of over 250 hostages, according to Israeli reports. Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has led to over 36,000 deaths, according to Gaza health officials, and has caused a humanitarian crisis.
Since the war’s outbreak, Meta has faced accusations of suppressing pro-Palestinian content. Nearly 200 Meta employees voiced similar concerns in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders earlier this year.
Hamad’s termination appears linked to a December incident involving an emergency procedure at Meta, known as a SEV or “site event,” used to address severe platform issues. He noted procedural irregularities in handling a SEV related to restrictions on content posted by Palestinian Instagram personalities, which prevented their posts from appearing in searches and feeds. One instance involved a video by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza being misclassified as pornographic, despite depicting a destroyed building in Gaza.
Despite conflicting guidance from colleagues about the SEV’s status and his authorization to address it, Hamad’s manager later confirmed in writing that SEV issues were part of his job. However, the following month, Hamad was informed of an investigation into his actions, prompting him to file an internal discrimination complaint. Days later, he was fired. Meta cited a policy violation barring employees from working on issues involving accounts of people they know personally, referring to Azaiza. Hamad insists he had no personal connection to Azaiza.
