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Israel meeting with Facebook to prevent external meddling in elections

February 5, 2019 at 9:34 am

Chairman of Israeli Election Committee Hanan Melcer met with Facebook officials yesterday and asked them to restrict political ads and provide tools that would guarantee no external meddling in April’s Israeli elections, the Times of Israel reported.

Melcer asked Facebook executives “to re-examine the possibility of advancing, as much as possible, its preparations on the subject [to] preserve the integrity of elections and reduce unfair influence on voters.”

A spokesperson for Facebook declined to say whether it planned to accede to Melcer’s request and introduce the tools earlier than planned.

The spokesperson said that it would only provide an answer directly to the Central Elections Committee “in the near future.”

READ: Netanyahu launches own TV channel to bypass mainstream media

Israeli media reported that the Shin Bet security agency had revealed that foreign countries are intending to influence the Israeli elections through online meddling.

Last month, Facebook said that it would introduce rules that require all Israeli ads about national or political issues to give information about who paid for them in order to protect the Israeli voters from misinformation related to elections.

Facebook noted that it would introduce these rules weeks prior to the elections. However, the Israeli Elections Committee wanted them to be introduced this month.

Israel pass Facebook Bill which will authorise deleting content considered incitement - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Israel pass Facebook Bill which will authorise deleting content considered incitement – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]