A logo of American company Meta is seen during the startups and technology innovation exhibition Vivatech, at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on May 22, 2024.
Julien De Rosa | Afp | Getty Images
An ex After employee who was put on the “Do Not Hire” list after stalking and harassing one of the company’s employees has found himself rehired by the tech giant after gutting its talent and recruiting department, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court on behalf of Meta employee James Napoli, accuses the company of violating the New York Human Rights Act and being negligent in rehiring the individual. He also accuses the company of retaliation after it allegedly sidelined Napoli and removed him from major projects when he raised concerns that the person had been rehired.
“I had spoken to my employer about this… on multiple occasions and was told he couldn’t come into our offices, that he wouldn’t be hired again, and all of a sudden, this guy reaches out to me [on Meta’s internal messaging system]Napoli, a marketing leader who works out of Meta’s New York office, told CNBC in an interview. “I thought my employer could keep me safe, right? Because stalkers and harassers are also dangers in the workplace… And that’s not just a danger to me, that’s a dangerous person left back in the workplace.”
The lawsuit comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in March 2023 that Meta would reduce the size of its recruiting team as part of a broader strategy to cut 21,000 jobs, remove layers of middle management and run more efficiently.
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Although Wall Street has responded positively to Meta’s cost-cutting plans, layoffs in the company’s customer service and trust and security teams have made it harder for the social media giant to respond to concerns from small businesses and influencers, as and in state and local elections officials using Facebook and Instagram, CNBC previously reported.
In the wake of Meta’s cost-cutting efforts and subsequent layoffs, Napoli’s attorneys say in the lawsuit that the company relies “heavily on recruiting employees through outside contractors” and employs “far fewer recruiters to screen applicants,” which which negatively impacts their ability to correctly catch red flags.
“Meta’s employment practices are apparently so chaotic, reckless and inefficient that the company fails to monitor the most fundamental data point in its workplace – the dangerous people who pose a serious risk to Meta’s own employees,” the lawsuit, which filed by attorneys Carrie Goldberg and Peter Romer-Friedman, it says. “Yet Meta is telling the public and public officials that the company has the ability to protect the personal data of billions of children and adults on their platforms.”
Meta has previously faced similar allegations that it employed workers who engaged in stalking and related activities. For example, in 2018 the company said so fired a security engineer which allegedly used internal data to track women online.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Do Not Hire List.
The Napoli stalker accused, identified only by the initials “GF” in the complaint, was part of Meta’s marketing team before he was fired in November 2022 when the company cut 13% of its staff as part of a larger restructuring.
Before the layoffs, GF and Napoli occasionally saw each other at meetings, but they were nothing more than “working acquaintances,” Napoli said. After GF lost his job he reached out to Napoli for support and asked him out for a coffee. During that encounter, the alleged stalker began making “disturbing” comments, the filing states.
“[He] he told me he hears voices, God speaks to him and God has been speaking to him since April of that year and he sent me a list of documents that were like his journal entries over the months,” Napoli recalled.
Napoli “immediately” reported the incident to his manager and HR, and initially said he was concerned for GF’s welfare. But the following year, Napoli says, the situation escalated.
GF began sending Napoli up to 30 messages a day, contacting his family members and mentioning Napoli’s partner, friends and even his dog, Luigi, in messages.
“I’m being tortured by an AI technology I don’t know where it came from and I feel like my love for you is being used for experiences I didn’t agree to, while my spirits tell me you and I are the two messengers,” GF wrote in a message to Napoli, according to the complaint.
The GF found out where Napoli lived and “personally delivered a large group of disturbing writings and drawings” to the apartment, forcing Napoli and his partner to move out, the lawsuit states.
“I really felt like I was drowning for a long time because I couldn’t do anything to get out. … It was really scary,” Napoli said. “I was worried about going out, I was worried about my dog, I was worried about my partner, because it was all being reported by this person.”
Napoli reported GF to the police and considered getting a restraining order, but under New York state law, protective orders are only available to people who have a close or family relationship with their stalker, the lawsuit states.
In September 2023, Napoli informed Meta that the stalking had increased “in frequency and severity” and the HR department assured him that GF was on the company’s “Do Not Hire” and “No Entry” lists, which specifies persons who should not be allowed on company premises.
But just four months later, the company rehired GF in a contractor position after apparently plugging the cracks in the hiring process, the suit says. Napoli learned his alleged stalker was back at Meta when his GF’s name appeared on Workplace, the company’s internal messaging system. Napoli says she got a text from GF saying he was rehired and would see him at meetings and events.
“To return all that after being assured that I would be safe was really painful,” Napoli said. “I immediately went to [HR]… they informed me that they were equally stunned. They didn’t have an answer as to how it happened and informed me that they would investigate.”
Terminated again
For the next month, Napoli says he “lived in terror of interacting with GF at work” until Meta notified him that GF had been terminated. However, after GF lost his job a second time, “Mr. Napoli’s stalking and harassment significantly intensified and became more creative, sexually violent and obsessive,” the lawsuit states.
As Napoli dealt with the ongoing pursuit, they also faced retaliation at Meta for complaining to his managers and HR about the decision to re-hire GF.
Napoli had been tapped to lead an AI marketing push at Meta, but says that in response to his complaints, those projects were removed and he was sidelined with reduced responsibilities.
In his complaint, Napoli is seeking damages but did not specify the amount. He also asked the court to issue orders barring GF from rehiring Meta and prohibiting the company from “engaging in further discrimination or retaliation” 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,” Napoli said. “I’m very passionate about my work and I take a lot of pride in my work and that’s really all I want to be able to do.”
Napoli said it decided to tell his story because it wants Meta to make reforms that would prevent something like this from happening again.
“It doesn’t seem to me that the proper procedures are in place to prevent this from happening to … me or anyone else,” Napoli said. “Everyone deserves a safe workplace.”