While Israeli police smothered Palestinian protests on the streets of East Jerusalem in May 2021, a separate agency attempted its own sweep online. The Cybercrime Department in Israel’s Ministry of Justice sent social media companies lists of thousands of user accounts it wanted removed for violating the services’ content policies with their posts about the protests.
A former Twitter employee says the company suspended a few of the accounts flagged by the Israeli agency for using hateful or harassing language. But policy staffers determined that most were simply Palestinians and others tweeting comments that, while critical of Israel, did not break any rules.
The Israeli cyber department is an example of
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