Israeli Sues Facebook for Banning Him from the Social Network

An Israeli Facebook user, Mr. Omri Weil, recently filed suit with the District Court of Jerusalem against the social network site. In his suit, Mr. Weil seeks to prohibit the site from deleting content that he previously uploaded, and from barring his use of the site, without substantiation and without letting him voice his objections. In addition, Weil's lawsuit requests that Facebook disclose the list of complainants against him. Weil claims that he created a Facebook page called “Offenses by Shai Piron”, where Mr. Weil intended to disclose information regarding alleged offenses by the Israeli Minister of Education, Mr. Shai Piron. According to Mr. Weil, upon opening the Facebook page, he was overwhelmed by insults aimed at those who complained against Piron and, conversely, by praises showered upon Piron.

Weil also claims that he received, through personal messages on the page, threats demanding that he remove posts from the page. Weil says that he was barred from all use of Facebook (including posting status updates and commenting on posts), except for sending personal messages to friends. Weil empahsizes that in the past, he was sanctioned by a ban extending only 24 hours, which Facebook imposed due to a notice it received regarding abusive content. He was subsequently subject to a second, comprehensive ban, which lasted 6 days. Weil complains that the social network did not offer him the opportunity to voice his concerns nor to appeal the decision to ban him, and that the site’s unilateral deletion of his content is contrary to public policy. Weil added that he also intends to file a lawsuit against Facebook seeking damages. Source: News1 (In Hebrew, by Yitzhak Danon).