Israel’s Public Security Minister says Facebook’s recent decision to suspend 3 Israeli public figures’ accounts “illustrates just how flippant & unserious” the social media giant’s monitoring is.

By Israel Hayom Staff

After agreeing to partner with Israel in the war against online incitement to terrorism, Facebook has blocked the accounts of three Israeli public figures for allegedly violating the social media platform’s policy by posting “content that does not meet community standards.”

Demonstrating against Facebook’s disregard to incitement and bias judgements against Zionists – Photo: IsraelandStuff:PP

The Facebook account of Israeli radio personality Yotam Zimri was blocked for 24 hours following a cynical post reading, “Hey, stupid Palestinians, if you want to kill us, it would be best to wait until after the holidays. When you do it before, you’re most likely just doing that person a favor.”

Facebook said Zimri’s account was suspended for his use of the words “stupid Palestinians.” Some Israelis protested the move by posting the words “stupid Palestinians” on their accounts. Facebook later suspended some of their accounts, as well.

Publicist Raz Tsipris also had his account suspended for a month for posting a picture of a yellow Star of David with the words “Leftie.”

Professor Amir Hetsroni, whose provocative statements often place him in the eye of public storms over their racist nature, was also blocked for 30 days.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan criticized the decision, telling Army Radio that it made no sense that Israeli users are blocked while Palestinian and anti-Israel users continue to share and post content that incites to violence. “It illustrates just how flippant and unserious their [monitoring of the] platform is,” he said.

Erdan, who has criticized Facebook in the past for providing a platform for incitement against Israel, said, “I have no idea, and I don’t know what their priorities are. I am not really sure the company is at a stage where it has invested enough in this area, maybe it has invested more in making money and selling ads.”

Erdan claimed that Facebook “is starting to understand that if it doesn’t act quickly to put its company in order and have sane priorities, for example, support or incitement to terror is the thing that should be the most urgent and at the top of its priorities, then governments and countries will simply start to pass laws against it or hold it responsible for the results of what happens on its platform.”

View original Israel Hayom publication at:
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=36625