Lawsuit holds Facebook responsible for death of congress guard

The sister of Dave Patrick Underwood, the federal security guard who was killed in a speeding car shooting in 2020, is suing Meta, the new name of Facebook.

The lawsuit seeks to hold the company responsible for linking the two men accused in the murder plot and giving them space online to plan the attack.

The two men shot Underwood outside a federal building in Oakland, California, in May 2020. The two men accused in the case were later linked to the so-called boogaloo anti-government movement, which Facebook banned from its platform in June of 2020 because The group's history of "actively promoting violence against civilians, government and law enforcement officials".

The lawsuit states that "the shooting was not an act of indiscriminate violence" and added, "It was the culmination of an extremist plot orchestrated and orchestrated on Facebook by two men that Facebook has linked through an application infrastructure that allows extremist groups to use algorithms to connect and target holders of common goals." Increasing user engagement, and therefore Facebook revenue.

The lawsuit alleges that the two men would not have met had it not been for Facebook's recommendations, which prompted them to join groups that "openly called for violence".

" The allegations have no legal basis, " a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The New York Times, citing the company's contributions to banning "military social movements."

The lawsuit is not the first that Meta has been implicated over her role in fueling extremism and violence.

Facebook researchers have warned that the group 's recommendations were pushing users toward extremism since 2016, according to documents published by the company 's internal newspaper The Wall Street Journal (The Wall Street Journal) for the first time.

And documents from former employee Frances Hogan have raised questions about Facebook's role in inciting violence around the world.

A group of Rohingya refugees also sued Meta recently over Facebook's role in amplifying hate speech that incited genocide in the country.

In a statement to ABC, Ted Leopold, who represents Underwood's sister, noted Hogan's disclosures about Facebook.

"We intend to show that Facebook's behavior has led to an increase in worldwide extremism and violence in the real world, including the murder of Officer Underwood," Leopold said.