Thousands of Israelis have filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing the social media website of failing to take responsibility for posts that have called for violence against Jews.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday at the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn by 20,000 Israelis. The Israeli plaintiffs say that many recent terrorist attacks have been inspired by Facebook posts. They also say that Facebook’s algorithms for finding like-minded individuals allows terrorists to connect together more easily.
The plaintiffs claim that posts made on Facebook encourage people to commit violent acts, while also being provided with instructions regarding how to undertake such acts as efficiently as possible.
One post even included an anatomical chart showing the prime places to stab a human being to ensure their death. Stabbings have been widespread in the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians.
According to the lawsuit, Facebook has both moral and legal obligations to prevent the spread of such harmful content, but the company chooses to do nothing.
The plaintiffs are demanding that the website immediately remove all material relating to the encouragement of violent acts against Jews. They also want the website to better monitor its pages for such incitement in the future, and they want the website to stop service as “matchmaker” between terrorists and aspiring terrorists.
The lawsuit does not seek any monetary compensation from Facebook.
The lead plaintiff is Richard Lankin, a 76 year old who is currently in critical condition after he was shot and stabbed by Palestinian terrorists while he was riding on a bus in Jerusalem earlier this month. In the attack, two Israelis were killed, and over 20 people were wounded.
Three attorneys are representing Larkin and the thousands of other Jews who filed the lawsuit.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner released a statement through her law center that said, “Facebook wields tremendous power and this publicly traded company needs to utilize it in a way that ensures that Palestinian extremists who are calling to stab Israelis and glorifying the terrorist that do, are not permitted to do it on its platform.”
It is unknown how Facebook plans to respond to these allegations.
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