A Muslim civil rights organization filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Facebook over the frustration and the lack of progress towards mitigating anti-Muslim activity on the platform.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C., in the Superior Court. It claims CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company executives have engaged in a coordinated campaign in public and private sectors to convince the public that their product is safe.
The Facebook lawsuit is not alleging a recent rise of hate on the social network. As reported by the AP, the civil rights group has repeatedly alerted Facebook about the presence of hateful content towards Muslims that includes calls to violence.
Additional allegations and supposed violations committed by Facebook
The group emphasized that the company violated the D.C Consumer Protection Procedures Act. In other words, it is illegal for a company to make material misrepresentations about a good or service.
The lawsuit is the result of a joint effort and partnership by multiple organizations against Facebook. The plaintiffs are the Civil Rights group Muslim Advocates, the law firm Gupta Wessler and University of Chicago law professor Aziz Z. Huq.
Furthermore, the lawsuit advocated that ordinary people are bombarded with harmful content that violates Facebook's company policies through hateful speech. It manifests itself through dangerous organizations, violence, harassment, and bullying.
All of these types of groups of users perpetuate an anti-Muslim sentiment.
On the other hand, Facebook released a statement in response to the lawsuit. It claimed it does not permit or allow hate speech on the platform. Moreover, it regularly consults with experts, non-profits, and stakeholders to combat hateful speech to ensure Facebook is a safe place for everyone.
Business Standard reports, research presented by Elon University Professor, Megan Squire, informed Facebook of the group called "Purge Worldwide." The group's description is disturbing and reads the following message: "This is an anti-Islamic group A Place to share information about what is happening in your part of the world."
As a result, Facebook did not remove the group when it was furnished evidence of hateful content.
Instead, Facebook tweaked its settings to make it more difficult for outside academics to access this kind of information.
Complicated history with privacy violations, lawsuits and user data
Facebook has had a very successful social network that is free to the public, makes enormous profits and revenues through advertising. Of course, Zuckerberg's social media venture has been embroiled in privacy scandals throughout the company's history.
Remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal? The company harvested data from 87 million users and used it to sway voters during the 2016 presidential elections.
Facebook is coincidentally facing an antitrust lawsuit brought forward by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
As mentioned in a Market Watch report, the FTC called Facebook a "personal social networking" monopoly that violates antitrust laws by maintaining dominance.
Takeaways and conclusions
The Facebook lawsuit results from multiple failures by the company to curb hate content on the site. As reported by National Public Radio (NPR), it has been eight years since the civil rights group has reported many examples of bigotry and hate on Facebook.
The detailed report that compiles the violations committed by Facebook is titled "Complicit: The Human cost of Facebook's disregard for Muslim Life." It is a 44-page report with country summaries from nine countries, including the United States (U.S.), and a conclusion.
