Facebook Sued By Israelis for Failing to Monitor ‘Palestinian Terror’

“Many of these murderers were motivated to commit their heinous crimes by incitement to murder they read on Facebook,” according to 76-page suit

20,000 Israelis are behind a lawsuit filed against Facebook that blames the social media giant for failing to monitor “Palestinian terror.”

The 76-page lawsuit filed by the Israel Law Center on Monday claimed Facebook is responsible for failure to spot terrorist chatter as well as connecting people hell-bent on perpetrating murderous acts.

Plaintiffs have “been living in the cross hairs of a murderous terrorist rampage,” the suit said.  One of the plaintiffs is a U.S.-born man who was critically wounded in October during a Jerusalem terror attack.

Another is an Israeli who was shot and stabbed by terrorists who boarded a bus, killing two and wounding 20 on Oct. 13. The suit went on to argue that many terrorists have been motivated by things they read on the social media platform.

“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 lawsuit said.

Facebook, however, told the New York Post that the lawsuit is without merit: “We want people to feel safe when using Facebook. There is no place for content encouraging violence, direct threats, terrorism or hate speech on Facebook … This lawsuit is without merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves.”

The ILC told the Post that Facebook needs to be more sensitive to its algorithms which “are spanning decades of hatred and murder, and connecting people who are not only interested in malicious activities, but are actually going through with these activities.”

The suit concluded, “Facebook needs to be sensitive to that, especially when it’s a call to murder.”

The plaintiffs aren’t suing for damages, and are instead calling for an injunction.

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