Families of Oct. 7 Victims Sue Meta for Over $1 Billion
Translated & summarized from N12 by baba
Families of victims from the October 7th Hamas attacks have filed a lawsuit against Meta for over 4 billion shekels, accusing the tech giant of failing to remove graphic videos of the atrocities. One victim's granddaughter discovered footage of her murder on Facebook, which took a day to be removed. The families seek to hold Meta accountable for its platform's role in spreading the violent content and prevent future incidents.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Families of October 7th victims are suing Meta for over 4 billion shekels due to graphic content on its platforms.
- Mor Baida found a video of her grandmother's murder on the victim's own Facebook page.
- The lawsuit alleges Meta failed to promptly remove videos uploaded by Hamas terrorists.
- Lawyer Gali Kerner accused Meta of failing its responsibility to provide a safe online environment.
- The families aim to prevent future occurrences of such content dissemination.
- Meta stated it has policies against Hamas and works to remove violating content.
Families of victims from the October 7th Hamas attacks are suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for over 4 billion shekels (approximately $1.1 billion USD). The lawsuit alleges that Meta failed to adequately prevent the spread of graphic videos depicting the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists, many of which were uploaded by the perpetrators themselves onto Meta's platforms.
Mor Baida, granddaughter of Bracha Levinson, who was murdered in her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, recounted how she discovered a video of her grandmother's murder on Levinson's own Facebook page. "We opened and saw on her wall a video of Hamas terrorists murdering her in her home," Baida stated, expressing her anguish that the footage was shared on her grandmother's social media. The family struggled for hours to have the video removed, with the page only being blocked and the content eventually taken down after a full day.
The lawsuit claims that Meta possessed the tools to prevent the dissemination of these horrific videos but did not act swiftly enough, allowing the content to remain online for extended periods. Lawyer Gali Kerner, representing the affected families, accused Meta of failing in its responsibility to users, stating, "We allowed ourselves and our children to enter with the understanding that this is a safe environment free of violence of any kind. We certainly did not expect it to be a place for spreading a Hamas agenda to the whole world."
Baida emphasized that while her grandmother cannot be brought back, the legal action aims to prevent future occurrences. "I expect the people behind this advanced technology to create filtering mechanisms, control, algorithms that prevent, that filter, to create some kind of trigger warning," she demanded, noting the absence of such safeguards meant the graphic content was exposed like any other post.
Meta responded by stating their policies prohibit Hamas as a banned organization and that they remove content supporting or glorifying the group and the October 7th attack. They claimed dedicated teams worked around the clock to remove policy-violating content following the attacks. The court is reportedly exploring mediation between the parties.
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