Facebook to sue Mark Zuckerberg? It gets weirder
(CBS) - An Israeli entrepreneur has legally changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg in an attempt to avoid being sued by Facebook.
The move is an obvious attempt to troll the social network and its co-founder the real Mark Zuckerberg. Rotem Guez even created a website dedicated to his name change.
But, wait, it gets weirder.
Guez created a video of his visit to the Ministry of Home Affairs on Dec. 7 and uploaded the video to YouTube and his business' website days later.
"I'm Mark Zuckerberg and I'm Time's Troll of the year!" Guez wrote on a photo he posted to the Facebook fan page, "I'm Mark Zuckerberg." Yes, he has a fan page with 4,559 fans. The page's profile picture is of Guez holding up a passport reflecting his name change.
Urban Dictionary defines "trolling" as "trying to get a rise out of someone. Forcing them to respond to you, either through wise-crackery, posting incorrect information, asking blatantly stupid questions, or other foolishness."
Sounds like there's a lot of foolishness. The fake Zuckerberg even has an elevator pitch for his name change.
"This is the true story of Israeli entrepreneur Mr. Rotem Guez, Co-Founder of 'Like Store', an international social marketing company, who got a threat of a lawsuit from facebook and changed his name to Mark Zuckerberg," a statement said on the fan page.
The entire hullabaloo began when Facebook filed a lawsuit against Guez for his "Like Store." The website claims to sell "likes" to businesses looking to boost their social media reputation. It doesn't take a genius to guess that selling "likes" is a violation of Facebook's terms of services.
Guez sued the social network in January because they seized his profile and kicked him off for selling "likes" and creating fake accounts.
According to ZDNet, "Facebook's law firm Perkins Coie responded with a cease and desist statement, claiming that Guez and his Like Store violated Facebook's TOS by selling Likes to advertisers. Facebook disabled his profiles and Pages, revoked his license to use the site, demanded that Guez close his company and never access Facebook's services again."
Guez responded by changing his name.
"Protecting the people who use Facebook is a top priority and we will take action against those who violate our terms," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement given to ZDNet.
