The lawsuit, filed by Muslim Advocates in Washington, DC,
Superior Court on Thursday, claims Zuckerberg and other senior executives “have
engaged in a coordinated campaign to convince the public, elected
representatives, federal officials, and non-profit leaders in the nation's
capital that Facebook is a safe product."
Facebook, the lawsuit alleges, has been repeatedly alerted
to hate speech and calls to violence on its platform and done nothing or very
little. Making false and deceptive statements about removing hateful and
harmful content violates the District of Columbia's consumer-protection law and
its bar on fraud, the lawsuit says.
“Every day, ordinary people are bombarded with harmful
content in violation of Facebook's own policies on hate speech, bullying,
harassment, dangerous organizations, and violence,” the lawsuit says. “Hateful,
anti-Muslim attacks are especially pervasive on Facebook.”
In a statement, Facebook said it does not allow hate speech
on its platform and said it regularly works with “experts, non-profits, and
stakeholders to help make sure Facebook is a safe place for everyone,
recognising anti-Muslim rhetoric can take different forms.
The company based in Menlo Park, California, said it has
invested in artificial intelligence technologies aimed at removing hate speech
and proactively detects 97 percent of what it removes.
Facebook declined to comment beyond the statement, which did
not address the lawsuit's allegations that it has not removed hate speech and
anti-Muslim networks from its platform even after it was notified of their
existence.
For example, the lawsuit cites research by Elon University
professor Megan Squire, who published research about anti-Muslim groups on
Facebook and alerted the company. According to the lawsuit, Facebook did not
remove the groups — but it did change how outside academics can access its
platform so that the kind of research Squire did would be “impossible other
than if done by Facebook employees."
Facebook's hate speech policy prohibits targeting a person
or group with “dehumanising speech or imagery," calls for violence,
references to subhumanity and inferiority as well as generalisations that state
inferiority. The policy applies to attacks on the basis of race, religion,
national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation,
sex, gender identity, and serious disease.
But in one example from April 25, 2018, Squire reported to
Facebook a group called “Purge Worldwide,” according to the lawsuit. The
group's description reads: “This is an anti Islamic group A Place to share
information about what is happening in your part of the world."
Facebook responded that it would not remove the group or the
content. The lawsuit cites other examples of groups with names like “Death to
Murdering Islamic Muslim Cult Members” and “Filth of Islam" that Facebook
did not remove despite being notified, even though Facebook policy prohibits
“reference or comparison to filth" on the basis of religion. In the latter
case Facebook did remove some posts from the group, but not the group itself.
The lawsuit also cites an exception Facebook made to its
policy for former President Donald Trump, for whom Facebook made an exception
to its rules when he posted as a candidate in 2016 about banning all Muslims
from entering the US.
Zuckerberg and other social media executives have repeatedly
testified before Congress about how they combat extremism, hate and
misinformation on their platforms. Zuckerberg told the House Energy and
Commerce Committee that the issue is “nuanced."
“Any system can make mistakes” in moderating harmful
material, he said.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial and damages of $1,500 per
violation.
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