Source: http://newobserveronline.com/israel-demands-world-internet-censorship/
The Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has unveiled plans to
censor the Internet’s worldwide social media platforms with the building of an
“international coalition” to counter criticism of Israel.
According to an article in the Times of
Israel, Erdan’s plan calls for
“developing legislation in conjunction with European countries,” most of which
“are very interested in this idea.”
The legislation would have common features, such as defining what
constitutes incitement and what the responsibilities of social networks
regarding it are, a spokesman for the minister told the Israeli-based
newspaper.
“Companies that do not comply will find themselves hauled into court,
paying a penalty,” he added.
According to the plan, the participating countries would be part of a
“loose coalition that would keep an eye on content and where it was being
posted, and members of the coalition would work to demand that the platforms
remove the content that was posted in any of their countries at the request of
members.”
“This is a perfectly logical and just project,” Erdan’s spokesperson said.
“If a hotel was being used as a venue for a hate group, we would demand that
the hotel break its contract, and we would lean on other hotels to abstain from
hosting them, so that the hate group would not be able to hold its event. This
is no different.”
Although the Israelis are attempting to disguise the project as a counter
to Palestinians posting “violence promoting material” on the Internet, it is
clear that the extension of this “coalition” has a far wider scope.
Justifying the plan, Erdan’s office used an example of a Palestinian who
allegedly posted up a body chart showing where the best places were to stab
someone fatally—apparently a reference to the recent spate of knife attacks on
Jews in Israel.
The number of postings of that nature are, however, tiny in comparison to
the volume of material going up on the Internet, and there are already more
than sufficient methods in place to deal with such incidents and get them
removed.
Nonetheless, Erdan’s spokesman said the “coalition” would “force the
world’s leading social media giants to prevent their platforms from being
abused to peddle incitement to terrorism.”
The social media giants “make millions but claim they are not responsible
for content, and that they only provide a platform,” a spokesperson for Erdan
told the Times of Israel. “That is not going to wash. We are planning to
put a stop to this irresponsibility, and we are going to do it as part of an
international coalition that has had enough of this behavior as well.”
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