Facebook sued by Israel group over Palestinian attacks

Israel: A group of Israelis and Americans have reportedly filed a $US1 billion lawsuit in damages from Facebook Inc. for allegedly facilitating deadly Palestinian militant attacks on their loved ones.

The plaintiffs, a relatives of four Israeli-US dual nationals and one visiting US citizen who died during attacks in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, accused Facebook of aiding Hamas militants operation.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in New York on Monday, alleged that Facebook "knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas ... facilitat(ing) this terrorist group's ability to communicate, recruit members, plan and carry out attacks, and strike fear in its enemies".

Facebook did not respond directly to the lawsuit but stated that it stood by its regulations for preventing abusive content.
The company's representative in Israel said the company wanted "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 ... 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."

The lawsuit comes after Israel's security minister criticized Facebook over what he consider as Facebook's reluctance to help track possible Palestinian militants and control incitement to violence.

The plaintiffs' Israeli lawyer, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, claim they had expert assessments linking Hamas to the other attacks.

Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri described the lawsuit an Israeli attempt to blackmail Facebook and accused Israel of trying to turn the social network into a spy tool against Palestinians.
He said some Israeli politicians and soldiers had "showed pride in the killing of Palestinians" on Facebook and other social media.
Abu Zuhri added that;

"The real test for the owners of Facebook is to reject this pressure from Isreali."