Senior executives from Facebook met with Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan to discuss cooperation to prevent incitement on social media.
Taking part in the meeting on the part of Facebook were VP public policy Joel Kaplan, global public management head Monika Bickert, and Facebook Israel policy and communications head Jordana Cutler. On behalf of Israel besides the ministers were the State Attorney's Office law and technology national supervisor Haim Wismonski, and Israel Police National Cyber Crime Unite head Chief Superintendent Meir Hayun.
According to Shaked and Erdan, Facebook recognizes that it has the ability, responsibility, and will to help end incitement to terrorism from the social network, and agreed on closer cooperation with Israel.
Facebook’s responsibility was highlighted by the admission of many terrorists arrested in the recent wave of terrorism against Israel that they were affected by incitement on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms.
Shaked said, “Israel is in the forefront of the struggle against terrorism, and also in the war against online incitement. It is clear that all the parties share a common interest in fighting terrorism. I believe that Facebook and the other social networks are capable of doing more in the war against incitement.”
Erdan said, “Facebook and the Internet companies are responsible for the content published by them that encourages terrorism and incitement. It was proven in the recent wave of terrorism that Facebook became an incubator for terrorism, and the companies must, and can, do much more.”
Facebook said, “The Facebook delegation’s visit to Israel is part of the company’s “ongoing dialogue with policymakers and experts around the world to keep terrorist content off our platform. Online extremism can only be tackled with a strong partnership between policymakers, civil society, academia and companies. We want people to feel safe when using Facebook, and for that reason, we’ve developed a set of Community Standards which make it clear there is no place for terrorists or content that promotes terrorism on Facebook.”