Several legislative initiatives in Israel and other countries, compelling Facebook to block incitement websites, have led to an urgent request from the social network for a meeting with Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who happens to be behind some of the above mentioned initiatives. But from the PR statement that described the meeting it sounded more like the minister summoned the network and not the other way around, mostly because the Minister got to do all the talking.
It’s good to be the Minister.
Simon Milner, director of policy for Facebook in the Middle East, Africa and the UK, and Minister Erdan met on Monday in Jerusalem, for a “conversation in a good but determined atmosphere,” where Erdan alerted his guest to the problems Israel has been facing in recent months from Facebook’s being used as a recruiting tool for ISIS and a breeding ground for lone terrorists. He told Milner that interrogations of terror suspects shows that they were most profoundly influenced by messages they had read on Facebook and other social networks. In fact, the murderer of Alexander Leblovitz, 64, who was killed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, confessed that he had been driven to kill Jews by messages on the Islamic Movement’s website saying the Al Aqsa mosque was in danger.
A significant number of terrorists are in the habit of posting on Facebook their intent to murder Jews, which Erdan believes encourages others to follow suit. The social network is full of praise for the shahids-martyrs, alongside practical instructions on ways to carry out acts of terror using sharp objects and explosives.
“Facebook has been earning an enormous fortune but does nothing to prevent the alarming incitement taking place over its pages,” Erdan told his guest, adding that “Facebook must accept responsibility for its publications, otherwise Israel and other countries would have to resort to enacting legislation forcing it to comply with preventing such publications.”
Erdan also noted that Facebook collects an enormous amount of information regarding every subscriber’s habits, hobbies, loves and hates, which determine the advertising directed at them. It is unimaginable, then, in that context, that the network would be unable to identify incitement in time, before it is turned into acts of violence.
“The company must create a mechanism to locate inciting or pro-terrorism chatter. The same way it is possible to demand the responsibility of websites with hurtful content, Facebook must accept similar responsibility for all the content it displays,” Erdan said. “You influence many people all the time.”
Milner, for his part, told Erdan that he understood the problem and that his company will study the matter, as he plans to pass on the stern messages to his bosses. He noted that everyone must find the proper balance between putting a stop to incitement and the preservation of free speech. The two men agreed to meet again and continue the dialogue — hopefully with Milner getting a word in edgewise.
Then Milner left the building and two Arab girls stabbed him with a pair of scissors. No, they didn’t, but it would have made for an effective lesson in free speech.