October 7 victims’ families sue Meta for streaming footage of murders and abductions

Families of October 7 victims are suing Meta for over $1 billion, alleging the company allowed footage of murders and abductions to stream live on Facebook and Instagram and failed to remove it promptly. The Tel Aviv District Court held a preliminary hearing and proposed mediation.

Families of people killed or abducted in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, are suing Meta for over $1 billion, alleging the company allowed footage of the murders and abductions to stream live on Facebook and Instagram and failed to remove it promptly. The lawsuit, filed in August 2023, claims that terrorists used victims' phones to broadcast the attacks onto their social media pages, and that the hours-long delay in removal enabled wide distribution. The Tel Aviv District Court held a preliminary hearing on Monday and proposed mediation. Plaintiff Mor Bayder described watching her grandmother Bracha Levinson being murdered in real time on Facebook; it took Meta hours to block the page and a day to remove the footage. Other plaintiffs include the family of Tsachi Idan, who was killed in captivity after his daughter Maayan was murdered during a livestream, and Stav Arava, who watched his mother, brother, and his mother's partner being killed and two young girls abducted. The plaintiffs demand NIS 200,000 for every relative or close friend exposed to a livestream of a victim's death, and NIS 20,000 for every Israeli social media user exposed to such content. The lawsuit states that Meta profited from the traffic that day. Meta says it took down content praising Hamas and had teams working around the clock to remove violating content.