Israel’s parliament approved a bill that would allow authorities to remove certain posts supporting illegal activities from social media at a preliminary reading Dec. 8. During the stormy Knesset debate, Opposition Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu banged on the table and hissed, “I want to tell you how absurd and dangerous this is. Have you forgotten that we are a democracy? This is terribly dangerous.”
“It’s a law to shut up those of us Right-wingers,” added Religious Zionist Chairman Bezalel Smotrich. “First you took control of most of Israel’s institutionalized media, now you want to become the censors of the social networks — which is the only place that the Right, the state’s National Zionist camp, can express itself freely — now you want to stifle this too. … You’ll label everything we say as incitement or violence.”
