ISRAEL CRITICIZES ‘MONSTER’ FACEBOOK
JERUSALEM • Israel’s police minister accused Facebook Inc. of complicity in Palestinian violence against his country after back-toback attacks claimed the lives of a 13-year-old stabbed to death in her bed and a father of 10 killed in a driveby shooting.
Many young Palestinians incite anger against Israelis on Facebook and the social network fails to take down such posts, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said. Facebook also sabotages police efforts and turns down requests for collaboration, he said.
“The victims’ blood is partially on Facebook’s hands,” Erdan said. “Facebook has turned into a monster. The younger generation in the Palestinian Authority runs its entire discourse of incitement and lies and finally goes out to commit murderous acts on Facebook’s platform.”
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company works “regularly with safety organizations and policy-makers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make a safe use of Facebook. There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform.”
Israel’s claims against Facebook are another sign of the complicated role now played by social-media giants in global affairs as their platforms become centre stage for everything from political activism to promoting terror. Facebook has struggled to police images posted by terrorist groups and online weapons bazaars.
Just last month, a French Jewish youth group sued the company, along with Twitter Inc. and Google Inc., over how they monitor hate speech. At the same time, governments from around the world are calling on all three companies to help in the fight against terrorism.
A wave of “lone wolf ” attacks by Palestinians on Israelis that began last fall is being encouraged by posts on social media that call for murder and glorify attacks, the Israeli government says. The violence, which had appeared to lull in recent months before a June 8 shooting at a Tel Aviv retail and food market, has intensified more than two years since peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians last collapsed.
In all, about three dozen Israelis and more than 200 Palestinians — most of them attackers or people involved in clashes with Israeli troops — have been killed since October.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a former high-tech entrepreneur, told Israel Radio on Sunday that by using a simple algorithm, Facebook could block videos inciting to murder from being posted. Israel’s inner security cabinet discussed blocking social networks in the Hebron area where the two deadly attacks took place last week, within the space of just over 24 hours.