Israeli Ministers To Propose Law Against Using Facebook For ‘Terror’

I-24 NEWS – Israel’s justice and internal security ministers on Wednesday announced plans to propose legislation banning the use of Facebook to advance “terror” and outlawing incitement from the Internet.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in a joint statement they had met earlier in the day with senior Facebook executives who were informed of their intention.

The ministers also instructed their respective ministries and the police to draft a new bill for removing terror content from the internet and social media.

Shaked and Erdan said the legislation would aim to make it illegal to publish “offensive content” such as “encouraging terror attacks, shaming, insulting public officials and slandering”.

The principles of the bill would be that the state would issue a warning letter to internet, domain name and social media providers who can potentially remove the content as site administrators.

If the providers, such as such as Facebook and Google, remove the terror content there would be no further action.

If they do not remove the content, the bill would allow the state to request the courts to order the providers to remove the content within 24 hours, as Facebook does in the European Union, said the statement.

This would be backed by a law that blocks concent inciting “terror” and ensures its “complete removal, similar to laws in Australia and France”.

Israel maintains that online content has played a significant role in fuelling a wave of Palestinian attacks that broke out in October 2015.

The violence has killed at least 209 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians were killed as they carried out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Wednesday statement, the ministers said that “in the latest wave of terror there has been a direct link between online incitement and the so-called ‘lone wolf terror’ attacks.”