US Justice Department Sued Facebook for Alleged Discrimination Over US Workers

By Neil P. First Posted: Dec 04, 2020 09:47 AM EST

The U.S. Justice Department sued Facebook on Thursday alleging the big tech as anti-American by favoring foreign workers over skilled Americans.

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The Facebook logo is displayed at the Facebook Innovation Hub.

Big Tech companies are using H1-B Visas to hire foreign individuals in their company. Though this helps other individuals but this also led to thousands of Americans not getting first the available jobs in the country. This put Americans at disadvantage.

Justice Department Sued Facebook

The U.S. Justice Department sued Facebook on Thursday. According to The New York Times, the big tech is becoming an anti-American by favoring foreign workers through H1-B visas rather than hiring those who are in the country.

According to a copy of the complaint from the U.S. Justice Department, it was stated that Facebook "refused to recruit, consider or hire qualified and available U.S. workers." There were supposed to have 2,600 positions with an average salary of $156,000.

However, the complaint said that those positions went instead to the immigrants holding H1-B visas. The Justice Department also said that the action is followed by a two-year investigation of whether Facebook intentionally favored H1-B visa holders in hiring employees rather than hiring skilled Americans in the country.

Eric S. Dreiband, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, said, "Our message to workers is clear: If companies deny employment opportunities by illegally preferring temporary visa holders, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable."

He also added "Our message to all employers - including those in the technology sector - is clear: You cannot illegally prefer to recruit, consider or hire temporary visa holders over U.S. workers."

It cannot be denied that the Technology Sector was the first group who protested after Pres. Trump announced new rules for H1-B visas.

Other Issues of Facebook

This is not the only issue that Facebook is facing in the country. The social media platform along with other big techs such as Google, Amazon, and Apple have been accused of data privacy abuses, the spread of disinformation and other toxic content on their platforms, and the monopoly that has harmed consumers and small businesses.

In the previous months, regulators and lawmakers have scrutinized and questioned Facebook ad other big techs for possible monopoly violations. The Federal Trade Commission and 40 other states are now preparing to file antitrust lawsuits against Facebook.

Credible persons who knew about the cases said that they are going to announce plans for legal action soon. This is not the first time that employment or the hiring process of big techs has become an issue. In fact, this has been an issue for a decade.

Despite this, big techs such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and other companies have lobbied also for years to expand H1-B visas and argued that they can get the best engineers abroad specifically in China and India.

However, critics said that the visa program a crutch for tech companies to overlook U.S.-born talent and lure foreign workers at lower wages.