A team of government-appointed Israeli experts set to examine far-reaching measures to curb global social media companies and may seek to hold Facebook legally responsible for posts on its platform, report says Sunday televised.
The team, currently being selected by Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel, may seek to force Facebook to reveal its policies on censorship, exclusion and how messages are placed in its algorithm, the Twelfth reported. chain.
Currently, when content or users are removed from the platform, Facebook is not required to provide details explaining this measure.
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The proposed measures also provide for social media giants to become responsible for incitement or defamation posted on their platforms, which is virtually unprecedented in the world, according to the report.
At this time, Facebook and other social networking sites are not legally responsible for false or harmful content that appears on their platforms, unlike newspapers and other traditional publishers.
In recent years, Facebook has also come under criticism for failing to stem hate speech, incitement and misinformation. However, Facebook is not in the habit of outright banning fake news on its platform, instead adding fact-checks by outside parties to the denied claims. The two exceptions relate to elections and COVID-19.
Yoaz Hendel speaks at a conference in Ramat Gan, September 8, 2019 (Flash90)
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According to the report, officials will try to get Facebook representatives to talk to them about a solution, before taking action. The idea would be to push Facebook to take its own steps to ensure greater transparency and accountability in its operations, or to face measures imposed by the government.
The envisaged measures, which must be finalized within three months by Mr Hendel’s working group, could apply to all social networks, according to the report.
The report was released days after a former Facebook employee told members of the US Congress that the company knows its platform is spreading misinformation and content harmful to children, but refuses to bring any harm. changes that could affect its profits.
And last week, a six-hour global outage shut down Facebook, Instagram and the WhatsApp messaging service, potentially affecting billions of users and underscoring the global reliance on Facebook-owned services. Facebook questioned a configuration change and apologized.
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