Israel seek to fining social media sites over anti-Israeli posts

Legislation fining social media sites that do not remove content encouraging anti-Israeli sentiments received the Israeli parliament coalition’s approval on Sunday, as part of the cabinet’s efforts to curb online Palestinian resistance.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill that gives social media providers like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter 48 hours to remove anti-Israeli posts.

If the site does not remove the posts, it will be fined about $78000 per post. If there is proof the site knew about the content encouraging Palestinian resistance and still did not remove it, the fine will be increased to about $104000.

The bill’s explanatory section points out that in recent months, Israel has faced the ongoing anti-occupation Intifada along with an increase in online anti-Israeli posts, specifically on social media.