World - A Tel Aviv court ordered
Facebook Inc to unblock the private account of a worker
at Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, and similar rulings
are expected for other employees in the coming days, an NSO
spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
A group of NSO employees filed a suit against Facebook in
November, saying the social media group had unfairly blocked
their private accounts when it sued NSO in October.
Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp accused the
Israeli firm of helping government spies break into the phones
of about 1,400 users in a hacking spree targeting diplomats,
political dissidents, journalists and senior government
officials across the world.
The NSO employees said their Facebook and Instagram
accounts, and also those of former workers and family members,
had been blocked.
Ruling on their complaint, Tel Aviv District Court ordered
the account of one employee to be restored by Wednesday
afternoon.
"We are certain that following the court's unequivocal
statements, Facebook will reverse the action it took against
other employees," the NSO spokeswoman said.
Facebook said in a statement: "NSO Group has conducted cyber
attacks against human rights activists, journalists, and
diplomats. We will continue to take appropriate action to defend
our users and we look forward to participating in open court to
document how NSO threatens the safety and security of users and
needs to be held accountable."
The company said in November it had disabled "relevant
accounts" after attributing a "sophisticated cyber attack" to
the NSO Group and its employees, saying the measure was
necessary for security reasons.
WhatsApp accused NSO of facilitating government hacking
sprees in 20 countries. Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and
Bahrain were the only countries identified. NSO, founded in
2009, denies the allegations