SAN JOSE, Calif. – A California state judge has ruled that Meta’s secretive arbitrations of employee lawsuits are substantively unconscionable and that the arbitration results can be made public.
The ruling was in a wrongful termination case that has already gained media attention because it was filed by Ferras Hamad, a successful Palestinian American software engineer at Meta Platforms Inc. who said he was fired for trying to correct chronic anti-Palestinian bias in the censoring of social media posts.
Mr. Hamad, a Muslim born and raised in the United States, said he was fired for investigating removed posts and filed the lawsuit alleging Meta violated his rights under the Fair Employment and Housing Act by discriminating against him based on national origin and religion.
The judge found that Meta’s secret arbitration policy “prevents public scrutiny of the arbitrators’ decision” and that Meta put forth no “legitimate commercial need for confidentiality.”
“This is a significant win for the more than 65,000 employees of Meta who can overcome their employer’s chronic censorship and discrimination,” said Shahmeer Halepota of AZA, who is handling the case with Joe Ahmad and Sean Healey of AZA and California lawyers Siavash Daniel Rashtian and Saleem K. Erakat of Rashtian Law Group in Irvine, Calif.
The judge wrote: “A prohibition on disclosure of the written arbitration award and opinion is a broad prohibition and does not leave much else about the ‘arbitration proceedings’ that could possibly be discussed. Although Meta argues that the clause ‘does not on its face prohibit mentioning of the fact of arbitration,’ discussing the ‘fact’ of arbitration is comparatively meaningless if one is still precluded from discussing the outcome.”
Mr. Hamad was recruited and hired by Meta in 2021 and received glowing reviews and commendations. He was assigned in 2023 to watch for posts on Gaza, Israel and Ukraine. At the same time that Human Rights Watch publicly criticized Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram for pulling down pro-Palestinian posts in December, Mr. Hamad started investigating complaints regarding censorship of Palestinian photojournalist, Motaz Aziza.
Once he began that investigation, finding, for instance, that the photojournalist’s picture of a bombed building in Gaza had been censored as being “pornographic,” Meta turned around and investigated him. Mr. Hamad was accused of personally knowing the photojournalist, though he did not, and was terminated in February 2024. He was fired on the eve of his stock vesting.
The case is Ferras Hamad v. Meta Platforms Inc., case number 24CV440543, in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Santa Clara.
AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, healthcare, intellectual property and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized by Chambers USA 2024 as among the best in Texas in commercial law and intellectual property; has been listed by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 13 years; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.