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A Staten Island man has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the social network shut down his account without explanation.The plaintiff, Mustafa Fteja, reportedly discovered that his account had been disabled back in September after he was repeatedly unable to log in. The 30-year old says that he contacted Facebook for an explanation, but only received automated responses. Fteja, an Albanian Muslim who moved to the U.S. when he was 17, has accused Facebook of discriminating against him because of his religion.
Fteja had been a member of the social network for three years, and claims that he's always been a model citizen. He hardly posts anything to his Wall, and never spreads spam or inappropriate messages. According to him, the only reason he used the site was to stay in touch with his friends and family, many of whom are overseas. Now, he's demanding that Facebook restore his account, and pay up for having disconnected him from his family -- for no apparent reason. "I know one thing -- I didn't do anything," he told the New York Daily News. "I didn't violate anything."
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Comments
24
Subscribe to commentsTrunJan 28th 2011 9:18AM
@Taboo500 Unfortunate as it is to mistake "your" for "you're" while trying to tell someone they should finish their education, I'll let you go on that one. On another note, I will happily send you a copy of my high school diploma, along with my certifications.
I also know all about Christianity, and the laughable contradiction it is. As with all religions, Christianity is flawed, and Christians violate the very standards they hold everyone else to.
davidJan 28th 2011 7:03AM
You have no inherent right to use facebook and its a free service. Therefore, you cannot sue them for cancelling your account. They should counter-sue him for harassing litigation. This guy is my first nomination for 2011 Moron of the Year.
JimJan 28th 2011 7:29AM
@Rob
TrunJan 28th 2011 7:33AM
@Rob You're retarded.
@The Article Unfortunately for this poor guy, there are PLENTY of Muslims on Facebook that aren't suspended. So obviously it can't be based on his religion. And since it's Mark Zuckerburg's site, and not this guy's, Mark Zuckerburg and his army of moderators can ban you if they don't like your face. You don't pay to use it, you don't have some guarantee that you can use it.
JimJan 28th 2011 7:40AM
I believe if you check your American History, people came to this country for RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, now to my understanding, that means the right to worship (or not) any God they please. Yes I am and I wish the whole world were Christian, but this country is not now, nor ever has been a Christian Nation. To believe otherwise is to mock the soldiers who have died and others who have and continue to make sacrifices to defend this and other freedoms.
Also if you check, I believe you will find many of the founding fathers were agnostics.
beast219898Jan 28th 2011 12:19PM
@Jim
Actually Jim my research shows me that many of the founding fathers had very strong religious beliefs about God and that if you don't think America is Christian, then you clearly don't know the history of the people who first came over here after its discovery. That's what all pilgrims came over for, freedom to worship God as they chose; most of which were christian...
MelissaJan 28th 2011 8:14AM
@Taboo500 Methinks YOU need to find out what Christianity is all about. You obviously have no idea.
Phillip PaliseJan 28th 2011 8:27AM
@Rob You are misguided at best, and ignorant, biased, and divisive at worst. You clearly do not understand our constitution and, I suspect, have not even read it. Check out the part that discusses religious freedom. Could be a real awakening. Hopefully, also an appreciation why your right to be Christian is in concert to another persons right to be Muslim.
RickJan 28th 2011 8:27AM
@Taboo500 Really? Comments like that are what is wrong with this world. Yes, I believe that people are too sensitive. People nowadays believe that if something is done that they don't like, its because of their religion, or their race, ect. And I think they need to learn that sometimes, things just happen that your not going to like. That being said, its comments like yours that fuel their belief that everyone is against them. Your the one being insensitive.
AngelaJan 28th 2011 10:18AM
1.If his account was canceled "without explanation", his accusation of religious discrimination is invalid. 2. If the company had a reason to cancel his account, then too bad, so sad, it sucks to be him. 3. If they accidentally canceled his account, they owe him 1 year of free membership. Nothing more. 4. This case should fall under the "Loser Pays" protocol, and since the case should be thrown out since it is an obvious abuse of our overburdened court system, he should pay all court costs & attorneys' fees for the defendant.
BabygirlJan 28th 2011 11:02AM
@Angela
Hey, Angela, FB is ALREADY free!!!! But, above what everyone else has stated, I believe FB does owe him an explanation as to why they closed his account. If FB can contact you about services they want you to add to your account, then why not advise users when they are going to close your account?
scriptaffiliatesJan 28th 2011 10:36AM
They should be sued if he can prove discrimination. Anyone who discriminates should be sued. No matter what race, or religion, all people are equal....
CherylJan 28th 2011 11:06AM
@scriptaffiliates ----- "IF" they discriminated. That's a BIG "if". If this country and corporations like Visa, Mastercard, Pay Pal, Amazon, etc. can cut off Julian Assange from receiving donations to Wikileaks when he hasn't even been officially "charged" with espionage or anything in the U.S. ... then it appears that Facebook can do anything they darned well please, especially if they think something improper is going on. I highly doubt this is a discrimination case, and he probably doesn't have leg to stand on (no pun intended), and the court should summarily dismiss this frivolous lawsuit.
jr0315Jan 28th 2011 12:18PM
@scriptaffiliates - Sorry to disappoint, but everyone discriminates in some way. Whether a personal bias, or related to one's feeling of security in any environment, we ALL discriminate, even you. The key in this case is, did this person lose any personal assets and/or rights that should have been afforded him, AND was there any indication that any actions taken by FB were done so based on his perceived religious beliefs?
exoticdoc2Jan 28th 2011 10:36AM
And now, Facebook's side of it, please. I suspect there is more to it than what this guy lets on. On top of it, he has no innate "right" to use Facebook that he can sue over, and there are other avenues of communication with his "family" (if that is who he was truly contacting) available instead of whining about it and filing frivolous lawsuits. Facebook should definitely counter-sue for at least all their courts costs.
CharlieJan 28th 2011 12:24PM
@exoticdoc2 From what it says in the article, Facebook's side of it is, "Auto Reply." I understand the frustration with "Auto Reply" and I understand why the man believes he was discriminated against. Whether or not he was actually discriminated against, I do not know. I suspect a technical glitch.
exoticdoc2Jan 28th 2011 3:59PM
Charlie and Cheryl. I suspect (could be wrong, of course) what Cheryl meant by "a big if" is whether or not it was appropriate discrimination. There is obviously appropriate and inappropriate discrimination. Inappropriate is based on race, for instance, while appropriate would be to exclude pedophile stalkers or terrorists. It largely comes down to what kind of evidence they have something wrong was committed, if anything at all was.
CherylJan 28th 2011 1:10PM
@Babygirl : ----- You have a point, HOWEVER, he may be under active investigation and Facebook may not be permitted to alert him as to their reasons. Who knows? All the secrecy going on in this country, it could be anything. If I were him, I wouldn't be making a stink about anything or drawing attention to himself. There's a lot of crazy people in this country as well as his.
CharlieJan 28th 2011 12:21PM
@Cheryl I'm not sure what you mean by "that's a BIG if." Either they discriminated or they didn't. If they discriminated, they should be sued. If they didn't discriminate, the suet should fail. That's a regular sized if. Not a BIG if, not a small if. Just an if. And the same if applies to the donations to Wikileaks. If that was a case of discrimination, he should also be able to sue.
karenpJan 28th 2011 11:36AM
Here's the big question. What is this supposed religion that has this person being banned from facebook? I know its not Muslim because I have some Muslim friends on facebook. (and that's real Muslim not the holistic Muslims)