Money Matters, Simplified.
Facebook gets sued for disabling user's account
by Jaspreet Virk - January 28, 2011 - comments
In addition to the monetary compensation, the lawsuit is seeking restoration of account.
First the hack and now the lawsuit! Troubles for Facebook are not nearing end anytime soon, it seems. Just a day after Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg's official fan page got hacked, a disgruntled user has filed a lawsuit against the Palo Alto, California based company.
Mustafa Fteja from Staten Island has sued the social networking giant for $500,000 after his account was disabled without any warning.
"While the requested service is free, the plaintiff has spent timeless hours creating content and relationships [Facebook] benefited from,” claims the law suit filed against the social networking behemoth at Manhattan Supreme Court.
The 39-old said that for months he has been trying to contact the company to find out why account his account has been disabled, but all in vain.
In addition to the monetary compensation, the lawsuit is seeking restoration of account.
User says account disabled for no reason
Fteja said that his account was deleted on Sept. 24 for no reason. When he tried logging into his account, Facebook told him that his account has been disabled.
Two weeks later, he got a form e-mail, stating that he had breached terms of Facebook agreement.
"I know one thing -- I didn't do anything. I didn't violate anything.” He added that if he had done anything wrong, he wouldn't sue Facebook.
The Staten Island man, who arrived in United States 17 years ago from his native Albania, said that he had created account on Facebook 3 years back to connect to his family and friends living in Montenegro, Albania, Germany and Austria.
But unexpectedly, his account has been disabled. As a consequence, he has lost contact with his 340 online friends, and access to dozens of personal photos posted on his profile page.
Further, many of his friends are angry with him because they believe that he defriended them.
Fteja: a victim of religious discrimination?
The 39-old said that for months he has been trying to contact the company to find out why his account has been disabled, but all in vain.
"You call, they don't answer the phone. You write, they don't reply,” stated Fteja, adding that he has only got automated responses to his queries.
Fteja, who is a Muslim, alleges that the he has been targeted because of his religion.
“I lived in a communist country where people had no rights. This looks the same to me," he stated.
Fteja said that he has not filed lawsuit for money, but for justice. “I believe there should be some, somewhere."