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Israeli government and Facebook agree to tackle online incitement together
Senior Israeli government ministers and Facebook executives agreed to work together to combat online incitement at a meeting in Tel Aviv yesterday.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked met Facebook’s Joel Kaplan, Vice President of Global Public Policy and a former deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House, and Monika Bickert, Head of Product Policy. They agreed to create joint teams to further discuss how to deal with internet incitement.
Israeli leaders have long maintained that such incitement has been a key factor in the apparent ‘lone wolf’ Palestinian attacks which have killed at least 40 people over the past year. Erdan and Shaked have spearheaded a legislative initiative which would compel online platforms such as Facebook to remove content on court orders.
A Facebook statement said: “Online extremism can only be tackled with a strong partnership between policymakers, civil society, academia and companies, and this is true in Israel and around the world. We had constructive discussions about these important issues and look forward to a continued dialogue and cooperation.”
In addition to Erdan and Shaked, the Facebook delegation also met with civil servants, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and opposition MK Revital Sweid, who has submitted her own draft legislation which would force social networks to better monitor content or face a fine.
Erdan, who visited London last week, said: “Facebook and internet companies have a responsibility regarding the content they allow on their sites that encourages incitement and terror, and they should actively operate to monitor it.”
Meanwhile, Shaked told a security conference in Herzliya that Facebook has already begun removing 95 per cent of content requested by Israel, while You Tube has removed 80 per cent of the content at Israel’s request.
However, Yediot Ahronot reported that Facebook did not respond to Erdan and Shaked’s request that they consider specific words such as “intifada,” “stabbing” and “death to Jews” as grounds for removing content.