Ex-Meta engineer sues company over wrongful termination related to handling of pro-Palestinian content

An ex-Meta engineer sued his former company for wrongful termination, alleging that he was fired after investigating pro-Palestinian content as part of his job.

Ferras Hamad worked as a software engineer for Meta and was tasked with overseeing Instagram content filters related to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, according to the complaint. He filed the lawsuit against Instagram’s parent company, Meta, on Tuesday in California state court in Santa Clara.

His role focused on investigating “severe issues” also known as SEVs with the online platform. The lawsuit alleges that Meta terminated him due to his Palestinian background and for raising questions about how the company handled a Palestinian photojournalist’s Instagram account.

“Specifically, Plaintiff was scrutinized, interrogated, and terminated because he was of Palestinian national origin and/or Muslim investigating a SEV related to one of the most famous Palestinian photojournalists during the conflict in Gaza,” the complaint states.

“Plaintiff did not receive similar scrutiny, interrogation, or adverse employment actions when he responded to SEVs related to Ukraine or other world events,” the complaint added.

Meta said in a statement that Hamad “was dismissed for violating Meta’s data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination.”

The photojournalist’s account had been incorrectly labeled as “pornographic,” according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that Hamad’s manager initially told him he did not violate any company policy regarding the issue and that he handled it properly.

He was allegedly fired on Feb. 2 from Meta in connection “to a violation of its User Data Access Policy,” according to the complaint. The complaint alleged that Meta said that Hamad may have personally known the photojournalist, who had more than 17 million followers.

“Plaintiff was terminated despite confirmation from Plaintiff’s manager that he had acted correctly and from META’s own security operations personnel unequivocally stating the Plaintiff did not violate META’s User Data Access Policy,” the complaint read.

The complaint states that it is “highly improbable” that Hamad would know the photojournalist, noting that Hamad has never been to Gaza and was born in the United States.

“In reality, Plaintiff is simply the latest victim of META’s callus, chronic, and consistent anti-Palestinian bias,” the complaint states.