Facebook reinstates Israel’s once-most popular page after legal battle

Facebook on Monday reinstated a popular Israeli page that it had banned three years ago due to claims that its administrators had violated the social media site’s user agreement.

The move followed a Thursday Tel Aviv District Court ruling compelling Facebook to re-up “Statusim Metzaytzim” — Hebrew for “tweeting statuses” — and pay its two owners NIS 250,000 ($70,000) in compensation for legal fees.

The social media giant removed the page in January 2015, claiming that it had been publishing sponsored content. Statusim Metzaytzim, with its roughly 650,000 followers, had been Facebook’s most popular page in Israel. It published popular content on the state of Israeli society in the form of funny videos, memes and statuses.

Statusim Metzaytzim’s owners, Avi Lan and Adi Bentov, sued Facebook, arguing that there were given no prior warning before their page was taken down. But the social media site said its terms of service are clear in their prohibition of page managers promoting the content of third-party brands without permission.

In his Thursday ruling, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Rahamim Cohen that although Lan and Bentov had clearly violated the site’s user agreement, that did not justify the page’s closure. Rahamim ordered Facebook to reinstate Statusim Metzaytzim by 6 p.m. on Sunday.

When the social media site failed to reinstate the page by the deadline, Lan and Bentov filed a contempt of court motion.

Facebook subsequently filed for a stay in execution to the Supreme Court and submitted a request to appeal the ruling as well.

The page was restored on Monday morning after Facebook realized the Supreme Court would not respond to its stay in execution motion in time, a representative told the Calcalist news site.

“Happy Hanukkah and we’re online!” said the page’s cover photo.