Gafni’s Facebook gaffe

When Facebook failed to respond to his request to shut down a fake account in his name, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) decided to deal with it on his own — and invited Mark Zuckerberg, the popular social network’s founder and CEO, to a special Knesset hearing on the matter.

According to the ultra-Orthodox website Lada’at (Hebrew for “to know”), after discovering the fake account, the legislator decided to use his prerogative as the Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee head and called a special session on the matter of forged online accounts.

In the letter sent to Zuckerberg, Gafni invited him “to partake in a thorough debate which will deal with protecting the citizens’ rights in the age of the Facebook social network.”

“I’m not worried only for myself, but wonder how a common citizen can defend himself from such acts,” Gafni wrote.

A committee head has no authority to summon anyone against their will — and most definitely not a foreign national. Zuckerberg would be welcomed as “a guest of honor,” the MK concluded his letter.

As of Sunday night, the fake account had garnered over 300 “likes,” while some people warned the person behind it that posing as someone else was a criminal offense.