SPRINGFIELD, Va. (AP) -- A federal lawsuit filed Thursday against AOL Time Warner alleges that America Online has allowed hate speech to go unsanctioned in chat rooms for Muslims, in violation of federal civil rights laws.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria seeks class-action status and asks for an injunction requiring AOL to enforce its rules that prevent members from sending messages that offend community standards.
The complaint cites the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations.
"In light of the growing significance of the Internet, a public chat room should fall within this category as a place of entertainment and therefore should be free of harassment," said Kamran Memon, a Chicago attorney representing Noah.
AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said the lawsuit is "totally without merit."
"We have zero tolerance for hate speech on the service," Weinstein said. "When a complaint is brought to our attention, our staff reviews it, and can take action ranging from a reprimand to cancellation of service."
The only named plaintiff in the case, Saad Noah of Crest Hill, Ill., asked AOL repeatedly to clean up the "Koran" and "Beliefs: Islam" chat rooms, but was ignored, Memon said.
"Muslim members for years have been concerned about anti-Muslim harassment, but the harassers keep coming back," Memon said.
Noah, who was unavailable for comment, canceled his AOL membership in July 2000.
The lawsuit documents 20 pages of offensive comments posted in the chat rooms in 1998 and 1999.
Memon is seeking more information about how aggressively AOL enforces decorum in other chat rooms, but said AOL responded quickly last year when anti-Semitic comments were posted in political chat rooms after Sen. Joseph Lieberman was selected as the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages, but Memon said that is a secondary goal.
"The primary objective is to get AOL to enforce the terms of its service agreement in Muslim chat rooms," he said. The agreement prohibits members from using offensive speech.
Memon had asked to meet with AOL officials before filing the complaint to see if an agreement could be reached.
"AOL was not interested in speaking with us, so we really had no choice but to file a lawsuit," he said.
AOL has more than 14,000 chat rooms dedicated to specific interests of its members.
