Ngola lawsuit: Could Facebook be held responsible for hateful comments about a former N.B. doctor?
Global News
Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola is suing Facebook, alleging it failed to curb the racism and hate directed toward him after he was accused of starting a COVID-19 outbreak.
The case of a doctor who says he was driven out of New Brunswick by racism and bullying on social media points to a need for further regulation in an increasingly digital age, according to an expert in law and technology.
Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola said he was forced to leave his community of Campbellton, N.B., due to the community shunning he faced after he was falsely accused of sparking a COVID-19 outbreak in May 2020. He now lives in Quebec.
Last week, he launched a lawsuit against the province of New Brunswick and the RCMP, alleging they colluded to investigate and blame him for the outbreak.
But in an unexpected move, the lawsuit also named Facebook as a defendant, alleging the social media giant — which recently rebranded as “Meta” — was responsible for the rapid spread of misinformation about his case and permitted hateful comments about him to flourish.
“I think it’s a really interesting lawsuit and I think it brings up a lot of the problems we see when it comes to addressing online harms,” said Suzie Dunn, an assistant professor in law and technology at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Ngola, who is from Congo, said he was harassed over Facebook after New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs told a news conference that an “irresponsible” medical professional was to blame for the outbreak, which infected 40 people and killed two.
While Higgs did not name Ngola, the lawsuit said he had already been identified on social media when Higgs made those comments, so it was easy for the public to connect the dots.
The lawsuit alleges the doctor was doxxed, stalked, and mobbed by death threats and racist insults. According to the statement of claim, he received lynching threats, was called a refugee and told to go back to Africa.
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