Israel takes on Facebook in battle against incitement

Hoping to further clamp down on what it sees as the driving force behind a 10-month spate of Palestinian attacks, Israel is now preparing a law that aims to rein in content on social media, including Facebook, a platform it says plays a central role in inspiring attackers.

The current violence erupted in mid-September over tensions surrounding a Jerusalem site holy to both Muslims and Jews.

[...] Israel has repeatedly pointed to examples of social media content that it says fueled attacks, from drawings depicting Jews being killed to instructions on how best to stab an Israeli.

In a bid to extinguish what they see as the wellspring of the violence, Israeli police scour social networks, sifting through hundreds of thousands of posts that may be deemed as inciting to violence.

According to police figures obtained by the Israeli Movement for Freedom of Information, 426 Arabs were arrested for incitement between 2011 and 2015, much of it on social media.

Suhad Bishara, the acting director of Adalah, an Arab legal rights group, said that some investigations into incitement are justified but others challenge posts "that fall clearly within the realm of free expression."

Facebook's website says it reviews "reports of threatening language" and removes "credible threats of physical harm to individuals."

Aaron Mackey, a legal fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a U.S. group promoting civil rights in the digital world, said it was unlikely that the California-based Facebook would be bound by the Israeli law.