The Ministry of Communications under the direction of Communications Minister Yoaz Handel adopts the recommendations of the committee for regulating the social networks operating in Israel. The committee was established at the end of 2021 by Handel with the aim of recommending the regulation of the activities of the online social platforms. The committee is chaired by Liran Avisher Ben-Hurin, CEO of the Ministry of Communications, and among its members is Dr. Micha Goodman, Prof. Karin Nahon and others.
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The main recommendations of the committee: applying regulation to platforms with over 500,000 active users in Israel (5% of the country’s population), determining legal responsibility of the platform operators in relation to clearly offensive illegal content that is published, requiring the platforms to operate an online hotline for reporting illegal and offensive content and handling In these reports, the duty of transparency and the establishment of a representative office in Israel, and more.
Alongside this, the committee’s recommendations refer to the legal aspects – to authorize the courts to issue orders for the removal of illegal and offensive content, meaning that the social networks must be responsible for the content published by them. The chairman of the committee, director general of the Ministry of Communications, Liran Avisher Ben-Hurin explains the basic assumptions in a conversation with Globes:
“We say that a digital platform is a dual-essence body,” said Avishar Ben-Horin, “while it affects lives in scope and shapes discourse, norms from the world of administrative law live. It changes the face of the world and the story ends – this is not a small development company. Another point – The platforms are not just a bulletin board, they manage content for everything and anything. Therefore, the committee recommends holding them accountable.”
Communications Minister Yoaz Handel said in a statement that “legal responsibility should be applied to digital platforms in relation to the distribution of illegal sexual content, incitement to violence and terrorism, and more. The right of citizens to a protected online environment, the right of states to protect themselves and prevent incitement to terrorism, calls to violence, and certainly the right of a single person to receive relief against giant corporations that operate the digital platforms. The step we are taking today brings us closer to a more protected and safer online space while maximally preserving freedom of expression.”
This is Yoaz Handel’s latest move as Minister of Communications, right after the European Union is acting in a similar direction. However, it is important to note that the Ministry of Justice has already started dealing with these issues and even submitted a draft legal memorandum that touches the core of some of the issues, as published at the time in Globes. However, it should be said that the law has not yet been enacted, and it is still necessary that the buyer be dealt with by a law that does not deal with social networks at all.
The Communications Ministry insists that they should be the regulator in the field
And this is also the criticism of experts in the field. Dr. Tahila Schwartz Altshuler, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and an expert on law and technology, explains in a conversation with Globes that the problem is the timing in relation to the outgoing Minister Handel. Therefore, when the Minister of Communications chose to establish the committee – we thought that he would amend legislation as the Minister. But this report is submitted before Minister Yoaz Handel ends his term. So the chance of anything happening with this report is zero,” according to her.
The Communications Ministry explains that they have already started professional government work around this, and have decided to complete it. In the team there are professors who have done significant work and research, so they submitted the recommendations. To the criticism that Handel is coming out, the Ministry of Communications says that they will make an effort to present the conclusions to the new minister and the new CEO to make sure that it is not stopped.
Another criticism directed at the Ministry of Communications’ move is the call for the establishment of a dedicated regulator for social networks – while in the memorandum of the law on the regulation of television broadcasts, a law that the Ministry of Communications is promoting, it is stated that the regulators should be unified, including on digital. The Communications Ministry also answers this and says that even in the current recommendations, they are talking about a unified regulator, one of whose arms will deal with social networks. Similar to what happens in the UK and Italy, the country’s media regulators.
Dr. Schwartz Altshuler explains that this is a critical step that must happen. “Regulating social networks is the need of the hour, there is no reason for the users in Israel to become a back yard when things are being regulated in Europe.”
Committee member, Prof. Karin Nahon: “The physical public space, which for years was under the regulation of states, has been expropriated in recent years in favor of social platforms that regulate the digital space according to their worldview and according to their commercial goals, and as such have gained a lot of power.
“The report allows for a broad look at the relationships of social platforms with users and with the state, with the aim of creating a fair online space, and proposes, among other things, the imposition of responsibility on illegal and offensive content while minimally infringing on freedom of expression, a demand for an appropriate level of transparency, and the provision of consumer obligations aimed at empowering the public of users and protect their rights. I am sure that the report will be a point of reference for future legislation and public discussion.”