Paper Chase: Suit blames Facebook for election loss

3-9-2011 Michigan:

The paper

Facebook has one less friend, after a Dearborn Republican filed suit Wednesday blaming the popular social media site for his loss in a primary last year to face U.S. Rep. John Dingell.

The chase

Majed Moughni finished fourth in the Republican primary in August in the 15th District, getting just 4 percent. In a 10-page, class-action suit in Wayne County Circuit Court, the Dearborn attorney blames Facebook.

"In an attempt to overthrow the Dingell Dynasty, (I) devised a plan to use Facebook to accumulate thousands of friends, who in turn would spread the message and overseat the longest-serving member of Congress," the suit states.

Instead, his Facebook page was yanked June 10. It came as Moughni, 40, was using the site to criticize Dingell for questioning a blown call that cost Detroit Tiger Armando Galarraga a perfect game, rather than focusing on important issues.

"I had no chance without Facebook," said Moughni, 40. "They disorganized us in the middle of our campaign and we lost. Facebook took us off the market. They took us off the face of the earth."

The suit claims sweeping rights violations by Facebook and its whiz-kid founder, Mark Zuckerberg, for halting a "high rate of friend requests." It claims the website "engaged in conduct which was extreme, outrageous and beyond the bounds of decency in a civilized society."

Moughni's had about 1,600 Facebook friends when his page went down and was adding 20-100 a day. Dingell has about 6,000 fans on two Facebook sites.

Moughni isn't looking to get a piece of Facebook's multibillion dollar empire. Instead, he wants an injunction halting premature account closing.

"We don't want a penny from Facebook," Moughni said. "We just want Facebook to bring back our ability to communicate."

Why it matters

This is Moughni's second lawsuit related to the election. After the primary, he sued Dingell for $25,000, claiming the congressman swiped his "Make It In America slogan."

Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Facebook, wrote in an email Thursday that Moughni's account was disabled by an system that "flags suspicious or anomalous behavoior."

"This system always warns a user when they are nearing thresholds that will have features blocked or their account disabled. These warnings come as a pop-up that must be clicked through.," Noyes wrote. "The system is designed to prevent spammers and fakes from harassing our users and polluting the ecosystem."

Facebook users can avoid account shutdowns by heeding automated warnings, sending friend requests to only those they know and not sending lots of messages to people who aren't their friends, Noyes wrote.

Dingell staffers denied that claim but declined comment on the latest suit.

Undeterred, Moughni has opened a new Facebook account and is constantly adding new friends, he said. Moughni said he will try again to unseat Dingell in 2012. ..Source.. by RoNeisha Mullen / The Detroit News

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Former GOP candidate for Congress sues Facebook

3-9-2011 Michigan:

A former candidate for the Republican nomination to challenge Congressman John Dingell has filed a lawsuit against Facebook claiming that the social networking company deleted his account, causing irreparable harm to campaign.

Majed Moughni filed suit in Wayne County Circuit Court at the end of February. He claims in the suit that Facebook suspended his account in early June, causing his campaign to collapse.

“I had no chance without Facebook,” said Moughni, 40. “They disorganized us in the middle of our campaign and we lost. Facebook took us off the market. They took us off the face of the earth.”

The attorney says that he doesn’t want any of the billions of dollars Facebook is worth, rather he wants an injunction preventing the company from suspending accounts. Facebook says it uses a system which identifies questionable accounts, including those which have a high rate of friend requests and rejections. Once flagged, the page can be frozen or deleted.

The company also says it prohibits registered sex offenders from having accounts, and uses the same programming to identify potential offenders who have an unusually high number of friend requests to people of one specific gender or age, Michigan Messenger reported last year.

As for Moughni, he says that the loss of Facebook resulted in him losing the primary. He finished fourth in a four way race, and had only four percent of the primary vote. ..Source.. by Todd A. Heywood