Ferras Hamad

Ferras Hamad is a Palestinian-American engineer who was fired by Meta Platforms in 2024 for allegedly investigating and trying to fix software issues that were causing suppression of Palestinian content on Meta's platforms. ^[1] Human rights organizations had raised censorship concerns related to Palestine content before and after his firing.^[2]

Firing and subsequent lawsuit

In December 2023, Hamad investigated a software issue at Meta related to content mentioning Palestine not appearing in people's search or feeds on Instagram. In his investigation he noted irregularities related to how Palestinian content was being labeled, including inaccurately labeling a well-known Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza as "pornographic". Hamad had worked on similarly sensitive issues before, and his manager at Meta had confirmed it was a part of his job function. He was subsequently put under investigation and then fired for supposedly working on an issue related to someone he knew personally. Following his firing, Hamad said he had no personal connection to the Azaiza, and filed a lawsuit^[3].

Impact on employee non-disclosure agreements at Meta

Hamad's lawsuit against Meta was successful in attaining labor rights for all Meta employees, with a judge in California ruling that Meta’s secret arbitration policy “prevents public scrutiny of the arbitrators’ decision” and that Meta put forth no “legitimate commercial need for confidentiality.”^[4]