Facebook and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg are being sued for more than $1 billion over a controversial page on the social networking site that called for violence against Jews.
The suit was filed by American attorney and activist Larry Klayman in the D.C. Superior Court on Thursday. He’s also the founder of the conservative public interest group Judicial Watch.
In the lawsuit, which was obtained by blog TechCrunch, Klayman describes himself as “an American citizen of Jewish origin” who is “active in all matters concerning the security of Israel and its people.”
He alleges that Facebook did not take down a page that called for a “Third Palestinian Intifada” soon enough and willfully kept it up in order to “further their revues and the net worth of the company.”The page accrued more than 300,000 “likes” for its proposed May 15 uprising.
The page was removed by the company on March 29, several days after a number of people complained including Israeli Public Diplomacy minister Yuli Edelstein and the Anti-Defamation League.
A Facebook spokesman told AFP that the claims were “without merit.”
“We will fight it vigorously,” the spokesman said.
Facebook said the page was initially kept up because it “began as a call for peaceful protest,” but then became more violent.
“While Facebook has accomplished a lot of good, it can, as in this instance, be used for nefarious and evil purposes,” Klayman said in statement on his website.
“Defendants Zuckerberg’s and Facebook’s callous and greedy actions in not taking down the page, but willfully allowing it to stay up for many days, has caused huge damage, for which they must be held accountable, so as to prevent this from ever happening again. They must be not only enjoined but also hit in their purse, which is where they understand matters best.”
