Day Trender - News, Business, Real Estate News, Financial, Tech, World

Facebook Sued for $1 Billion

Larry Klayman, a former Justice Department prosecutor, author, and renowned activist, has reportedly sued Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg for over $1 billion.  The man claims that the social network took its time removing a page from its webspace which called for a third intifada against Israel's Jewish population, even though Facebook's terms of use prohibit direct calls for violence on the site.

Klayman, of Jewish origin himself, filed the suit late Thursday in Washington.  Klayman claims that Zuckerberg and Facebook kept the page up to “further their revenues and net worth” until March 29th, despite numerous complaints from Klayman, the Israeli government, and organizations like the Anti-Defamation League.

The page in question urged Palestinians to take to the streets after Friday prayers on May 15th and initiate an uprising similar to the first two intifadas.  “Judgment Day will be brought upon us only once the Muslims have killed all of the Jews,” read the controversial message.  The page reportedly acquired more than 340,000 fans while it was still up.

The removal of the page does not affect Klayman's lawsuit, he says, as he claims that damage has already been done.  Klayman added that he is currently in fear for his life as he has been called “a  Zionist publicly by radical Palestinians and other such Arabic interests” and is consequently a target of this call to kill Jews along with other prominent Jewish figures.

The lawsuit accuses Facebook of  assault and negligence, gross negligence and recklessness, asking for damages in excess of $1 billion, plus attorney fees and costs, and reserves the right to be amended into a class action suit.

Facebook officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying only that it has not yet been served a summons, but offered the following statement concerning the controversial page:


“The Page, The Third Palestinian Intifada, began as a call for peaceful protest, even though it used a term that has been associated with violence in the past. In addition, the administrators initially removed comments that promoted violence. 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.
We continue to believe that people on Facebook should be able to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content that speaks out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.
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.”