NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) - A former Meta

engineer on Tuesday accused the company of bias in its handling

of content related to the war in Gaza, claiming in a lawsuit

that Meta fired him for trying to help fix bugs causing the

suppression of Palestinian Instagram posts.

Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who had been

on Meta's machine learning team since 2021, sued the social

media giant in a California state court for discrimination,

wrongful termination and other wrongdoing over his February

dismissal.

In the complaint, Hamad accused Meta of a pattern of bias

against Palestinians, saying the company deleted internal

employee communications that mentioned the deaths of their

relatives in Gaza and conducted investigations into their use of

the Palestinian flag emoji.

The company launched no such investigations for employees

posting Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts,

according to the lawsuit.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said Hamad was dismissed for

violating the company's "data access policies," which set limits

on what employees can do with different types of data.

Hamad's claims reflect long-standing criticisms by human

rights groups over Meta's performance moderating the content

posted to its platforms about Israel and the Palestinian

territories, including in an external investigation the company

commissioned in 2021.

Conflict erupted in Gaza after Hamas militants attacked

inside Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking over

250 people hostage according to Israeli tallies. Israel in

response launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more then

36,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, and triggered

a humanitarian crisis.

Since the outbreak of war last year, the company has faced

accusations that it was suppressing expressions of support for

Palestinians living amid the war.

Nearly 200 Meta employees raised similar concerns in an open

letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders

earlier this year.

Hamad said his firing appeared to stem from an incident in

December involving an emergency procedure designed to

troubleshoot severe problems with the company's platforms, known

within Meta as a SEV or "site event".

He had noted procedural irregularities in the handling of an

SEV related to restrictions on content posted by Palestinian

Instagram personalities that prevented the posts from appearing

in searches and feeds, the complaint said.

In one case, the complaint alleged, he found that a short

video posted by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza had

been misclassified as pornographic even though it showed a

destroyed building in Gaza.

Hamad said he received conflicting guidance from other

employees about the status of the SEV and whether he was

authorized to help resolve it, though he had worked on similarly

sensitive SEVs before, including ones related to Israel, Gaza

and Ukraine. His manager later confirmed in writing that the SEV

was part of his job function, he said.

The next month, after a Meta representative told him he was

the subject of an investigation, Hamad filed an internal

discrimination complaint and days later was fired, he said.

Hamad said Meta told him he was fired for violating a policy

barring employees from working on issues with accounts of people

they know personally, referring to Azaiza, the photojouralist.

Hamad said he had no personal connection to Azaiza.

Meta declined to comment on what its data access policies

specifically prohibit as well as Hamad's claims about the

grounds for his firing.