Netanyahu wanted a social media blackout during IDF operation - report

Specifically, Netanyahu wanted to block TikTok, where videos of Arabs attacking Jews went viral on numerous occasions, arguing that the platform could lead to more violence.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
MAY 30, 2021 

Portrait of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu at his residence in Jerusalem, on March 18, 2021.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the proposal to shut down social media platforms during the first days of Operation Guardian of the Walls in an effort to simmer down riots in the mixed cities, Walla and Haaretz reported on Sunday.

Specifically, Netanyahu wanted to block TikTok, where videos of Arabs attacking Jews went viral on numerous occasions. He argued that the platform fanned the flames that could lead to more violence.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the prime minister raised the idea up on two occasions but the idea was shot down each time by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, as well as other officials, Haaretz noted.

The proposal was “based on the understanding that social media platforms inflamed what was already going on in Israel,” an official told Walla, “with many of the riots and violence coming together through Facebook and TikTok videos that served as inspiration.”

One of the more viral videos showed a 17-year-old east Jerusalem Arab attacking a haredi Jew on the Jerusalem light rail. He was later arrested by Israel Police.

“Blocking access to social media is an anti-democratic act that we’ve seen in Egypt, Turkey and Russia,” Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler of the Israel Democratic Institute told Walla.
The Prime Minister did not approve blocking Instagram and Facebook in Israel,” said the Prime Minister’s Office.

However, the official who spoke to Walla insisted that the proposal included Facebook and Instagram, in an effort to block all access to the inciting content.

“He did investigate the different possibilities for dealing with the phenomenon of inciting videos on TikTok, which police and security forces concluded did contribute to the increase in violence,” Haaretz reported.