By Roberto Hernández
Published: 2016-02-15
According to
a report on on Jan. 19, 2016 in The Times of Israel, also briefly reported in
The New Observer, Gilad Erdan the Israeli Public Security Minister, is to
develop legislation that would force FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter and others to
take responsibility for content, that is, legislation that would enforce a kind
of censorship in which the excuse that supports such extra-territorial
legislation is that these social-media networks can serve to peddle incitement
to terrorism.
This is specifically but not only
aimed at Palestinians, said Gilad Erdan, as an example of incitement to
terrorism, who allegedly posted a body chart on which are shown the best places
where one can stab someone fatally - apparently a reference to the recent wave
of knife attacks on Jews in Israel. Erdan also said on Sunday, that he
“intended to methodically expose the Palestinian culture of incitement among
relevant communities around the world.”
Apparently Erdan plans to start
working on a model statute with European countries, said his spokesman, and assures
that most of these countries “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. Companies that
do not comply will find themselves hauled into court, paying a penalty.”
But experts are skeptical about the
proposal. This so-called Coalition poses a high level of technical problems as
to how to monitor each and every post. As it is now, companies like FaceBook
have difficulty monitoring and enforcing their own policies due to the volume
of posts made on a given day.
However even if technically
possible, there is also a mixed reaction within Israel itself. We hope that is
true for the rest of the world, including those European countries which are
interested in this proposal. Censorship can wear many guises and could even
look appealing to some, but in the end it is a terrible game where no one gains
but those who enforce it, and all liberty is in peril.
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