The Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court ordered Bloomberg and its Israeli affiliate to pay veteran journalist Amir Mizroch about 360,000 shekels, or roughly $120,000, after the company revoked his employment before he began work.
According to the ruling, extensive background checks found no negative information about Mizroch beyond Facebook posts from 2012 in which he used the terms “Nigga” and “Bitches,” and posts on X from 2021.
The court said the case raised questions about “the right to be forgotten” in an era when online posts can live indefinitely.
“In the reality that exists today, in which a person’s records and publications about him can live forever on the internet, the question arises regarding a person’s right to be forgotten,” the court said. It said Bloomberg failed to justify searching about 10 years back through Mizroch’s social media posts or using those findings against him, especially when the comments were brief social media remarks and not signed articles or opinion columns.
The case stemmed from negotiations in 2022 over Mizroch’s potential employment in a senior position as head of Bloomberg’s Israel bureau. After negotiations, Bloomberg sent him an employment agreement, which he signed and returned. In April 2022, the company informed him that his employment in Israel had been approved starting in June 2022, subject to three conditions: signing and returning employment documents on time, a review of his references and receipt of background check results.
About three weeks before he was scheduled to start, a Bloomberg representative told Mizroch that the background check had uncovered Facebook posts from 2012 and tweets from May 2021.
The 2012 Facebook posts appeared to be comments written as part of a discussion and in response to another post, and included the words “Nigga” and “Bitches.” The 2021 post on Twitter, now known as X, related to antisemitic incidents in London during Operation Guardian of the Walls, Israel’s 2021 conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Mizroch said he was shocked and did not remember the content or context of the posts. He later explained that the 2012 Facebook post was satirical and part of a discussion with Jewish comedians. He said the 2021 tweet was written in response to anti-Israel activity abroad that had antisemitic overtones and, in his view, was not properly addressed by local authorities.
Mizroch said he asked the Bloomberg representative whether deleting the posts would help and was told it would. After the meeting, he removed the posts and closed his Facebook account. At the end of May, Bloomberg informed him that the employment offer was canceled immediately.
Mizroch argued that he had taken steps to wind down a consulting company he owned based on Bloomberg’s representations and that the cancellation caused him financial harm, damage to his reputation and severe distress.
Bloomberg argued that the offer was conditional on the background check. The company said the posts discovered during the review were inconsistent with its values and that, given Mizroch’s intended senior role, it was entitled to cancel the offer after holding a hearing, at which Mizroch was represented.
The court accepted Mizroch’s claim, ruling that the sides had entered into a legally binding employment contract. It also found Bloomberg acted in bad faith by deciding to conduct the background checks only after the binding contract had been signed.
The court said Bloomberg’s decision to dismiss Mizroch after the background check was also tainted by bad faith, in part because the posts were made before his employment and some were written about a decade before he was expected to start working for the company.
The court ordered Bloomberg to pay Mizroch about 307,000 shekels in economic damages and 50,000 shekels for emotional distress. It also ordered the company to pay 54,000 shekels in legal fees.
Mizroch was represented by attorney Tommy Manor of Naschitz Brandes Amir.
First published: 13:34, 06.21.26