Facebook accused in $1 billion lawsuit for providing ‘material support’ to Hamas

Facebook is once again in the midst of fighting lawsuits. Only this time it is a $1 billion lawsuit for aiding and abetting Hamas, a known Palestinian organization. Facebook is being sued by the families of five Americans who were killed or hurt by Palestinian attacks carried out in Israel. The lawsuit  alleges that the social media network “knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas.” Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by United States, European Union and Israel.

The lawsuit was filed on July 10th in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Facebook is accused of being a medium for Hamas. The complainants also argue that Facebook should be held liable for the attacks because “Hamas has used and relied on Facebook’s online social network platform and communications services as among its most important tools to facilitate and carry out its terrorist activity.”

The plaintiffs in the case include the families of Taylor Force, an American student who was killed in an attack in March; Naftali Fraenkel, who was kidnapped and killed in the West Bank in 2014; and Chaya Zissel Braun, a three-month-old who was killed in October 2014 attack in Jerusalem.

Facebook did not directly comment on the case filed this week, but in a statement provided to Bloomberg, it said it wants “people to feel safe when using Facebook. There is no place for content encouraging violence, direct threats, terrorism or hate speech on Facebook. We have a set of Community Standards to help people understand what is allowed on Facebook, and we urge people to use our reporting tools if they find content that they believe violates our standards so we can investigate and take swift action.”