Unwitting Israeli MKs almost pass law allowing sweeping internet censorship


Bill that would have given state power to block content on any website stymied by Netanyahu hours before final vote,

Tehila Shwartz Altshuler, Israel Democracy Institute assocxate

Raoul Wootliff writes in Times of Israel, “A radically unprecedented and far-reaching proposal that would have given the government the ability to block Israeli web users’ access to parts or the entirety of any website was stopped in its tracks Wednesday morning, hours before it was set to be voted into law by Knesset members who had “no idea” of its far-reaching implications. In a rare and potentially destabilizing move for his shaky coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the so-called “Facebook incitement bill” to be removed from Wednesday’s Knesset agenda after The Times of Israel found that the law went drastically further than was previously understood, even by the lawmakers pushing for it.”

“Fearful of damaging freedom of speech, and in order to ensure the right of the citizens of Israel to freely express criticism on the internet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested to halt the advancement of the ‘Facebook Law’ and to return it to its original format and purpose — preventing incitement on the internet,” read a statement released by Netanyahu’s Likud party on Wednesday.”…

“the initial purpose of the bill was to help tackle incitement on Facebook, specifically incitement to commit terror attacks. But the version that was about to become law had more far-reaching implications. When The Times of Israel began questioning lawmakers and other experts about those provisions this week, the implications of the bill became clearer, and it was pulled shortly before it was to have been approved.

A few weeks into the wave of terrorist stabbing attacks that spread across Israel from late 2015 to mid-2016, pundits and politicians had already begun calling it “The Facebook intifada.” The “lone wolf” terrorists who would go on to kill over 35 Israelis in attacks during that period were frequently found to have posted praise for previous attackers on their social media accounts, primarily Facebook.  Innumerable posts, videos and tweets extolled the virtues of attacking Israelis, with terror groups and private individuals posting incitement, songs hailing the terrorists, and instructional videos telling them how best to carry out attacks. In several cases, terrorists posted their own messages ahead of such attacks. Many of them mourned relatives killed while attacking Israelis, and peppered their feeds with posts hailing or yearning for “martyrdom.”…

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“Dr. Tehilla Shwartz-Altshuler of The Israel Democracy Institute said that despite following the law from its inception and sitting in many of the committee debates, she too had missed its true meaning. But after talking with The Times of Israel, Shwartz-Altshuler said she did a ‘full review’ of the law with another legal aide at the IDI and ‘came to the same conclusion.’ Even before the revelation, Shwartz-Altshuler described the bill as “one of the most severe infringements of freedom of expression passed by the current Knesset….“That is the most extreme application of such a law in the whole of the democratic world,” Shwartz-Altshuler said, calling it “a serious threat to freedom of information and freedom of speech in Israel.” (more…)

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