The non-profit organization Muslim Advocates filed suit yesterday in District of Columbia Superior Court against Facebook and its executives alleging that their failure to take down anti-Muslim posts, while claiming to do so, is fraudulent and violates the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act. The complaint (full text) in Muslim Advocates v. Zuckerberg, (DC Super. Ct., filed 4/8/2021) alleges in part:
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. Hateful, anti-Muslim attacks are especially pervasive on Facebook.
Yet Facebook refuses to “remove” this content or “take it down,” as its executives repeatedly promised that they and the company would do when they learn of such content. Instead, in an effort to convince Congress, civil rights groups, and the public that their product is safe, Facebook’s officials have consistently misrepresented the company’s actual practices when it comes to enforcing Facebook’s own its own standards and policies to keep Facebook free of hate speech and other harmful content....
Facebook has been used, among other things, to orchestrate the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, mass murders of Muslims in India, and riots and murders in Sri Lanka that targeted Muslims for death. Anti-Muslim hate groups and hate speech run rampant on Facebook with anti-Muslim posts, ads, private groups, and other content.....
Washington Post reports on the lawsuit.