Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel will travel to the United States next week, where he will meet with senior officials and professionals to discuss, among other things, the efforts to regulate global social media companies operating in Israel, including Facebook, Israel Hayom learned Monday from sources involved in the matter.
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Facebook has long been criticized for failing to properly remove harmful content posted on its platform, such as hate speech and misinformation.
Most recently, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the media giant "was aware that its Instagram app can cause some teen users harm" and a former manager alleged in a testimony that Facebook fueled the Capitol riot.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen told members of the US Congress that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, Facebook would choose its own interests.
In Israel, Hendel currently leads efforts to impose restrictions on the media giant and compel it to reveal its censorship policies. Similar restrictions might also apply to other global tech companies, such as Google and Microsoft.
The communications minister also seeks to make them liable for incitement and libel posted on their platforms. Currently, none of the companies are legally liable for false or harmful content published on their sites.
The unprecedented move could cause a rift between Facebook and Israel. The social media company might even go as far as ban Israeli news agencies from posting content on its site, as it did in Australia in response to proposed legislation that would require platforms to pay publishers if news content was posted on their sites.
Nevertheless, since Facebook is a publicly-traded company whose value might be dramatically affected as a result of the ban, the social media giant will most likely not take such measures.
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