AFP Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Internet
giant Google on Monday denied a report from Israel’s foreign ministry
that it has reached an agreement with the government to jointly monitor
YouTube videos inciting attacks.
The
ministry last week said that Google, which owns YouTube, had agreed a
joint mechanism to monitor online materials - including videos
encouraging attacks on Israelis - after a meeting between Google
executives and the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
But the firm said no such agreement had been struck.
A
Google spokesman told AFP the meeting, in which Hotovely met Google’s
senior counsel for public policy, Juniper Downs, and YouTube chief
executive Susan Wojcicki, was just “one of many that we have with
policymakers from different countries to explain our policies on
controversial content, flagging and removals.”
“The
Israeli ministry for foreign affairs has corrected its original
announcement which, in error, suggested there had been an agreement with
Google to establish a mechanism to monitor online materials,” he added.
Foreign
ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed a statement on their
website had been changed but said Israel was still “extremely grateful
for the good relations with Google.”
“Our
common objective is to remove dangerous incitement to violence on social
media. We have full confidence in the Google teams dealing with this
removal.”
Israel has been hit by a wave of
stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks carried out by Palestinians
since Oct. 1, with 17 Israelis killed.
As many as 101 Palestinians, including an Arab Israeli, have also died, over half of them alleged attackers.
The
Israeli government has repeatedly pointed to online incitement as a
cause for the attacks, with videos and posts lionizing the assailants
being widely shared.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to monitor and remove such material.
The
Internet firms have defended their policies, saying they have
sufficient protection against online incitement and rejecting
perceptions of political interference.
“We
rely on the YouTube Community to flag videos that they think violate our
Community Guidelines,” the spokesperson for Google said.
“Video flagged on YouTube is reviewed 24 hours a day and, if material violates our policies, it is removed quickly.”
The foreign ministry has also announced a new office to monitor and flag inflammatory media online.
The body, which will begin operation early next year, seeks to highlight provocative materials in real time.
Last
month, an Israeli NGO launched a lawsuit against Facebook over
allegedly failing to remove pages that encouraged the killing of Jews.
Last Update: Tuesday, 1 December 2015 KSA 00:55 - GMT 21:55
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