A class-action lawsuit against Facebook accuses the social media platform of ignoring widespread Palestinian posts calling for violence against Jews.
In the suit filed Oct. 26 in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, some 20,000 Israeli plaintiffs claim the Facebook posts have inspired recent terror attacks and that “Facebook’s algorithms and platform connects inciters to terrorists who are further encouraged to perpetrate stabbings and other violent attacks against Israelis.”
According to a news release issued by the plaintiffs, many recent assailants “were motivated to commit their heinous crimes by incitement to murder they read on Facebook — demagogues and leaders exhorting their followers to ‘slaughter the Jews,’ and offering instruction as to the best manner to do so, including even anatomical charts showing the best places to stab a human being.”
The suit alleges that Facebook has a “legal and moral obligation” to block much of this content and that it chooses not to.
The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against Facebook requiring the social network to “immediately remove all pages, groups and posts containing incitement to murder Jews; to actively monitor its website for such incitement; that all incitement is immediately removed prior to being disseminated to masses of terrorists and would-be terrorists; and to cease serving as matchmaker between terrorists, terrorist organizations, and those who incite others to commit terrorism.”
The complaint does not seek monetary damages against Facebook.
The lead plaintiff, Richard Lankin, 76, is in critical condition after having been shot and stabbed by Palestinian terrorists while riding on a crowded Jerusalem bus on Oct. 13. Two Israelis were killed and more than 20 were wounded in the attack.
Three attorneys — Robert Tolchin of New York; Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the director of the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, and Asher Perlin of Fort Lauderdale, Florida — filed the suit.
Speaking to J. by phone from New York, Darshan-Leitner said that the class-action suit targeted Facebook in particular “because Facebook is very popular in Israel, used much more than Twitter, YouTube or other social media. So the majority of Palestinian incitement on social media is on Facebook — the terrorists post pictures on Facebook, they glorify the deaths in statements on Facebook.” Even Islamic State, she said, has recently begun calling for the killing of Jews on the social media giant.
“We are not against offensive speech, or anti-Semitic phrases,” Darshan-Leitner told J. “We are against speech that is outlawed by the supreme courts of Israel and the United States, speech that ‘causes imminent danger.’ As a result of these Facebook posts, Palestinians are rising up in Israel and killing Jews. This speech is not permitted, and Facebook must take action to take down the pages and monitor such incitement.”
An article published Oct. 24 by the Associated Press said that social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, are the “number one source of news among young Palestinians.” According to the AP, 3.7 million Palestinians follow the Quds News Network, believed to be affiliated with Islamic Jihad, on the social media platform and 4.2 million follow the Shehab News Agency, which is believed to be affiliated with Hamas. — jta & j. staff