Facebook gives into Israeli court, restores popular Hebrew page

One of Israel’s most popular and humorous Facebook pages, “Tweeting Statuses” counts some 660,00 followers and it's now in business.

By MAX SCHINDLER
Updated: DECEMBER 19, 2017 01:26
The Facebook application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. (photo credit: THOMAS WHITE / REUTERS)
The Facebook application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017.
(photo credit: THOMAS WHITE / REUTERS)
Two billion users versus eight million people – in the fight between Facebook and Israel, David beats Goliath.
On Monday, Facebook restored the popular Hebrew-language page “Tweeting Statuses,” after an Israeli district court judge ordered the company to do so. The page was taken down three years ago, after reports emerged that content providers were paid for some of the uploaded content. According to Facebook, that violated their terms of service.
The social media giant then appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court to stay the ruling, but Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg dismissed the request.
After “Tweeting Statuses” contacted Facebook privately to no avail, its page administrators filed a suit in an Israeli court. The Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Thursday that Facebook had to restore the page by 6 p.m. Sunday, along with paying NIS 250,000 ($71,300) in litigation costs to the plaintiffs, a husband-and-wife team.
After the deadline passed without the page being restored, the administrators’ lawyer, Guy Ophir, filed a motion claiming that Facebook and its Israel CEO, Adi Soffer-Teeni, were in contempt of court.
Ophir then posted a photo of the lawsuit against Facebook – on Facebook. With Facebook required to respond in court Monday morning, the social media giant decided to reinstate the page.
This is the first time a massively popular Facebook page has been deleted and then resurrected, according to one of the page’s administrators.
A quick query search for “Tweeting Statuses” revealed thousands of people discussing in Hebrew the page’s return, garnering a near-universal positive response.
One of Israel’s most popular and widely-shared Facebook pages, “Tweeting Statuses” once hosted humorous, mostly family-friendly memes, in the vein of the pre-YouTube television show America’s Funniest Home Videos. The page, which counts some 660,000 followers, seems to have had most of its content restored.