Facebook Sued over 'Intifada' Page

Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg are being sued for more than $1billion over a page that was on the social networking site that called for violence against Jews.

The page, entitled Third Palestinian Intifada, had more than 340,000 'likes' for its proposed May 15 uprising when it was removed earlier in the week.The suit was filed by American attorney Larry Klayman in the D.C. Superior Court on Thursday.

He is also the founder of the conservative public interest group Judicial Watch. In the lawsuit Mr Klayman describes himself as "an American citizen of Jewish origin" who is "active in all matters concerning the security of Israel and its people."

He alleges that Facebook did not take down the page that called for a intifada quick enough, keeping it up in order to 'further their revenues and the net worth of the company.'

The page was removed by the company on March 29, several days after various people complained, including Israeli Public Diplomacy minister Yuli Edelstein and the Anti-Defamation League.

A Facebook spokesman said that the claims were 'without merit,' adding that 'we will fight it vigorously.' In his response to Mr Edelstein, Facebook’s director of policy for Europe, the Middle East and Asia Richard Allen said: 'Our reviewers felt that the content of the Page began as a call for peaceful protest, even though the term Intifada has been associated with violence in the past.

'In addition, the administrators initially removed comments that promoted violence. Under these conditions a page of this nature would normally be permitted to remain on Facebook.

'However, after the publicity of the Page more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence. Eventually, the administrators also participated in these calls .After administrators of the page received repeated warnings about posts that violated our policies, we removed the Page yesterday.'

Mr Allen added that the company 'continues to believe that people on Facebook should be able to express their opinions, and we do not typically take down content that speaks out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.

He said: 'However, we monitor pages that are reported to us and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of hate - as occurred in this case - we have and will continue to take them down.'

Mr Klayman said: 'While Facebook has accomplished a lot of good, it can, as in this instance, be used for nefarious and evil purposes.'

'Defendants Zuckerberg's and Facebook's callous and greedy actions in not taking down the page, but wilfully allowing it to stay up for many days, has caused huge damage, for which they must be held accountable, so as to prevent this from ever happening again.

'They must be not only enjoined but also hit in their purse, which is where they understand matters best.'

source : kompas.com