14 DAY TRIAL // Eight employees of Israeli firm NSO Group, mostly known for building spyware that is sold to governments, sued Facebook this week after their personal accounts got banned.
In their lawsuit filed with a Tel Aviv district court, the group explains that Facebook removed a total of 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts, some of which were created by employees of the Israeli firm and their relatives.
The legal action comes after earlier this year Facebook-owned WhatsApp sued NSO Group over account breaches powered by Pegasus spyware developed by the Israeli firm.
Facebook: Necessary step
According to the lawsuit, the employees tried to reach out to Facebook on several occasions, but the social network ignored their messages.
“Blocking our private accounts is a harmful and unjust measure of Facebook against us. In addition, the knowledge that our personal information was searched and used bothers us very much. We are proud to be employees of NSO, an Israeli company of values, countless people worldwide owe their lives to our technology, we believe in the justice of our way and shall continue to act to assist governments across the globe to prevent crime and terror through the technology that we develop,” the lawsuit reads according to a Reuters report.
Facebook has already responded to the claims, telling the cited source that it indeed removed what it described as “relevant accounts” possibly linked to the “sophisticated cyber attack” that it thinks NSO Group was involved in. Facebook said that removing the accounts was a necessary step to prevent additional attacks.
On the other hand, the social network explains that some accounts have already been reenabled after owners appealed the ban. No specifics have been provided, however, on the accounts that got banned or have been reenabled after the appeal.