Israelis Post North Korean Flags to Protest Social Media Censorship Bill

A bill that would allow judges to order the removal of content from social media platforms if a criminal offense has been committed through the posting of the content or if it endangers a person’s mental health, has passed its first reading in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, prompting widespread criticism. Many opponents of the bill, particularly among supporters of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other opposition parties, are posting North Korean flags on social media to register their protest against what they view as a dangerous anti-democratic measure. A message on the Likud party Twitter account charged that “the Bennett-Lapid-Abbas government is set to be the first government in the democratic world to enact fascist laws restricting freedom of expression on social media and blatantly interfering with the privacy of the country’s citizens.” A similar bill was first proposed by then-Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked when they were members of the Netanyahu government, but blocked by Netanyahu, himself. Deputy Education Minister Meir Itzhak Halevy, a member of Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, introduced this latest version of the bill. To become law, it must pass a second and third reading in the Knesset.