Facebook defends position on content standards after Israeli censure

Facebook is doing its share to remove abusive content from the social network, it said on Sunday in an apparent rejection of Israeli allegations that it was uncooperative in stemming messages that might spur Palestinian violence.

Beset by a 10-month-old surge in Palestinian street attacks, Israel said that Facebook has been used to perpetuate such bloodshed and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist government is drafting legislation to enable it to order social media sites to remove postings deemed threatening.

Ramping up the pressure, public security minister Gilad Erdan on Saturday accused Facebook of “sabotaging” the Israeli police efforts by not cooperating with inquiries about potential suspects in the occupied West Bank and by “set(ting) a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts”.

Facebook did not respond directly to Mr Erdan’s criticism, but said in a statement that it conferred closely with Israel.

“We work regularly with safety organisations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook. There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform,” the statement said.

It appeared to place an onus on Israeli authorities, as with any other users, to flag offensive content to Facebook monitors.

“We have a set of community standards designed to help people understand what’s allowed on Facebook, and we call on people to use our report if they find content they believe violates these rules, so that we can examine each case and take quick action,” the statement said.

Mr Erdan, who urged Israelis to “flood” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with demands for a policy change, expanded on the Mr Netanyahu government’s complaint in remarks published on Sunday.

Of 74 “especially inciting and extremist posts” Israel had brought to Facebook’s attention, 24 were removed, Mr Erdan said.

“Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster,” he said.