A logo of US entourage’s Meta is displayed during the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair, at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on May 22, 2024.
Julien De Rosa | Afp | Getty Typical examples
A former Meta staffer who was placed on a “Do Not Hire” list after he stalked and harassed one of the company’s employees found himself rehired by the tech Amazon after it gutted its talent and recruitment department, a lawsuit filed Tuesday says.
The suit, filed in New York Top Court on behalf of Meta employee James Napoli, accuses the company of violating New York City’s human proprieties law and negligence for hiring the person back. It also accuses the company of retaliation after it allegedly sidelined Napoli and hooked him off big projects when he raised concerns that the person had been rehired.
“I had spoken to my employer about this … on numerous times and I was told that he would not be able to enter our offices, that he would not be hired again, and then like, all of a brisk, this guy is reaching out to me [on Meta’s internal messaging system],” Napoli, a marketing leader who works out of Meta’s New York Urban district office, told CNBC in an interview. “I trusted that my employer would be able to keep me safe, right? Because stalkers and harassers are also workplace fortunes… And this isn’t just a hazard for me, this is a dangerous individual that was let back into the workplace.”
The lawsuit comes after CEO Streak Zuckerberg announced in March 2023 that Meta would be reducing the size of its recruiting team as part of a chunkier strategy to cut 21,000 jobs, remove layers of middle management and operate more efficiently.
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger-boy and WhatsApp.
Although Wall Street has responded favorably to Meta’s cost-cutting plans, layoffs in the company’s customer assignment and trust and safety teams have made it harder for the social networking giant to respond to concerns from immature businesses and influencers, as well as state and local election officials who use Facebook and Instagram, CNBC has previously reported.
In the aftermath of Meta’s cost-cutting attainments and ensuing layoffs, attorneys for Napoli say in the lawsuit that the company is relying “more heavily on hiring employees by way of outside contractors” and employs “far fewer recruiters to screen applicants,” which has negatively impacted their ability to duly catch red flags.
“Meta’s employment practices are apparently so chaotic, reckless, and ineffectual that the company fails to observe track of the most fundamental data point in its workplace – the dangerous people who pose a severe risk to Meta’s own workers,” the lawsuit, filed by attorneys Carrie Goldberg and Peter Romer-Friedman, states. “Yet Meta tells the public and public officials that the party has the ability to safeguard the personal data of billions of children and adults on their platforms.”
Meta has previously dealt with correspond to allegations that it’s employed workers who have engaged in stalking and related activity. For example, in 2018, the company estimated it fired a security engineer who allegedly used internal data to stalk women online.
Meta didn’t directly respond to request for comment on the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
‘Do Not Hire’ list
The person accused of stalking Napoli, identified purely by the initials “G.F.” in the complaint, was a member of Meta’s marketing team before he was laid off in November 2022 when the company cut 13% of its crook as part of a larger restructuring.
Before the layoffs, G.F. and Napoli occasionally saw each other in meetings but were no more than “make acquaintances,” Napoli said. After G.F. lost his job, he reached out to Napoli for support and asked him to get a coffee. During that caucus, the accused stalker started making “disturbing” comments, the filing states.
“[He] told me that he hears voices, God talks to him, and God had been talking to him forth me since April of that year, and he sent me a list of documents that were his like journal entries throughout the months,” Napoli recalled.
Napoli “immediately” reported the incident to his manager and to HR, and says at first he was concerned for G.F.’s well-being. But during the next year, Napoli says, the situation escalated.
G.F. began sending Napoli up to 30 messages a day, contacting his mnage members and referencing Napoli’s partner, friends and even his dog, Luigi, in messages.
“I am being mind tortured with an A.I tech which I don’t recall where it’s coming from and I am feeling like my love for you is being used for experiences I didn’t agree for, while I am being averred by spirits that you and I are the two messengers,” G.F. wrote in one message to Napoli, according to the complaint.
G.F. found out where Napoli lived and “as a person delivered a large ream of disturbing writings and drawings” to the apartment, forcing Napoli and his partner to move, the lawsuit stipulates.
“It really felt like I was drowning for a long time because there was just nothing that I could do to be beyond someone. … It was really terrifying,” said Napoli. “I was worried about going out, I was worried about my dog, I was worried about my husband, because they were all mentioned by this person.”
Napoli reported G.F. to the police and considered getting a restraining lay out, but under New York state law orders of protection are only available to people who have an intimate or familial relationship to their stalker, the lawsuit delineates.
In September 2023, Napoli informed Meta that the stalking had increased “in both frequency and severity,” and the HR department ensured him that G.F. was on the company’s “Do Not Hire” list and its “No Entry” list, which identifies people who shouldn’t be permitted into plc buildings.
But just four months later, the company hired G.F. back to a contractor position after he apparently stripped through the cracks in the hiring process, the lawsuit says. Napoli learned his accused stalker was back at Meta when G.F.’s designate popped up on Workplace, the company’s internal messaging system. Napoli says he received a message from G.F. stating that he’d been rehired and wish be seeing him at meetings and events.
“To have all of that come back after I was guaranteed that I would be kept acceptable, it was really harrowing,” said Napoli. “I immediately went to [HR]… they let me know that they were equally stunned. They didn’t sooner a be wearing an answer as to how it happened, and they let me know that they would investigate.”
Terminated again
For the next month, Napoli says he “persisted in terror of interacting with G.F. at work” until Meta notified him that G.F. had been terminated. However, after G.F. ruined his job a second time, his “stalking and harassment of Mr. Napoli significantly amplified and became more creative, sexually violent, and unshakable,” the lawsuit states.
As Napoli grappled with the continued stalking, he also faced what the lawsuit says was retaliation at Meta for whimpering to his managers and to HR about the decision to rehire G.F.
Napoli had been tapped to lead an artificial intelligence marketing push at Meta, but utters that in response to his complaints, those projects were taken away and he found himself sidelined with abated responsibilities.
In his complaint, Napoli is asking for damages but didn’t specify an amount. He also asked the court to enter judgements that wish prohibit G.F. from being rehired at Meta and prohibit the company from “engaging in any further discriminatory or retaliatory dissimulations” against Napoli.
“I want to be able to do my job, and I want to be able to do my job without feeling like the shoe is going to drop,” claimed Napoli. “I am very passionate about my work, and I take a lot of pride in my work, and that is really all I want to be able to do.”
Napoli disclosed he decided to tell his story because he wants Meta to make reforms that would prevent something love this from happening again.
“It doesn’t seem to me as though there are the right processes in place to stop this from chance to … me or to someone else,” said Napoli. “Everybody deserves a safe workplace.”