Families of victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of southern Israel have filed a class-action suit against Facebook parent Meta for failing to block the distribution of footage of the murder, abduction and torment of their loved ones.
The lawsuit, filed in Tel Aviv District Court, seeks 4 billion shekels (~$1.1 billion) in damages. This comprises 200,000 shekels (~$58,000) for each Oct. 7 victim whose suffering was documented and shared online; 200,000 shekels to their immediate family members and close friends who saw the footage and 20,000 shekels (~$5,800) for each Israeli exposed to the footage, Calcalist reported on Monday.
According to the plaintiffs, which also include some survivors, the footage turned Facebook and Instagram into “an integral part of the terrorist attack on Israel.”
“For many hours, in real time and long after the terrorist attack, horrific documentation from the attack (to put it mildly) was disseminated, showing innocent civilians—children, elderly, women, and men— subjected to atrocities that even paper cannot bear to describe,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in the claim, Calcalist reported.
The footage included “murder, extreme violence” and “abduction of civilians and soldiers, both living and dead,” among other brutal scenes.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Givatayim-based law firm of Matri, Meiri, Wacht & Co.
The attorneys from the firm argue that the videos were allowed to remain online for weeks in many cases, contradicting Meta’s stated policies, Calcalist reported.
Mor Baider, one of the lead plaintiffs, discovered his grandmother’s death through a Facebook post by the terrorists. Baider’s grandmother, Bracha Levinson, was a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
“Grandma was murdered on Facebook,” Baider said during an interview marking the first anniversary of the attack.
The plaintiffs say Meta did not activate its live content monitoring systems, deploy its rapid response team or remove the content quickly, “nor long thereafter (and in fact—to this very day,” according to the claim.
“The Respondent acted contrary to its policy, its commitments, and its obligations, allowing its social networks to serve as a weapon, as an inseparable part of the terrorist attack on the State of Israel,” according to the claim.
According to Calcalist, Meta responded: “Our hearts go out to the families affected by Hamas terrorism. Our policy designates Hamas as a proscribed organization, and we remove content that supports or glorifies Hamas or the October 7 terrorist attack.
“Following the attacks, we established dedicated teams that work around the clock to remove content that violates our policy, while ensuring our platforms remain available for condemning Hamas and raising awareness for the victims, including the hostages held in Gaza.”
