The Tel Aviv District Court in Israel granted an NSO employee's motion to order Facebook to re-open her social network account after Facebook had shut it down claiming that NSO employees breached Facebook's terms of use by assisting their employer to launch a cyber-attack through the WhatsApp app.
NSO is an Israeli cyber company that develops and offers authorities around the world offensive cyber tools for information and security purposes. Facebook filed a lawsuit against NSO in the United States, alleging that Facebook's WhatsApp application was attacked by NSO-developed software. After filing its lawsuit, Facebook also closed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of a few NSO employees.
In granting the motion, the court reasoned that while Facebook claims that NSO employees breached its terms of use, NSO failed to prove that they had done so by using their personal Facebook accounts. The court also indicated that Facebook failed to produce evidence to support its claim against NSO's or any of its employees' involvement in the attack on WhatsApp. The court, therefore, concluded that the balance of interests tips in favor of the NSO employees provided that the damages pleaded are supported by evidence of damage sustained by each employee.
Ultimately, since only one employee submitted an affidavit attesting to the damage she suffered as a result of closing her account, the court ordered that only her account be re-opened.
CLICK HERE to read the Tel Aviv District Court's decision (in Hebrew).
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