Facebook and its parent company Meta are always at the hub of controversies. This is nothing spectacular as it is the norm with most large companies. According to reports, a former Meta employee Brennan Lawson recently sued Meta, saying that he was fired because of some of his “faith” in Facebook. He claims that he had to question Facebook’s “disgraceful” practices and for that, he had to go. Lawson said in the indictment that he joined the company in July 2018 to work with Facebook’s content moderators. He views various graphic content including beheadings and child sexual assault. The content Lawson and his team viewed was particularly compelling, the lawsuit said, and had already drawn the attention of journalists, law enforcement and the government.
Lawson said Facebook introduced a protocol (algorithm) in 2019 that allowed members of his team to access Facebook Messenger data even if it had been deleted by users. Obviously, this is inconsistent with what Facebook is telling users. For years, Facebook claims that once a user removes contents, the content goes permanently. According to Lawson, the company do not keep to this claim and its lying to users.
Meta access messages even after deleting them
Lawson also claims the company uses the algorithm to access user data when law enforcement ask for data on suspects. “In order to get Facebook into the government’s favour, Lawson’s team will use back-end protocols to find answers for law enforcement agencies before determining how much data to share,” the indictment claims.
Later, Lawson questioned the legitimacy of the algorithm at a conference. In retaliation, the company had to take action he claims. Lawson claims that the hacking of his grandmother’s account is the reason for his sack.
According to Lawson, in 2019, his grandmother’s Facebook account did not function normally. It feels like a clear case of hacking. Lawson said he directed his grandmother’s case through the proper channels to restore her account. However, the company fired him anyway, saying he didn’t follow company policy. Meta claims he had to enter his grandmother’s email address into an administrative tool without permission.
As of now, there is no official comment from Meta regarding this issue.