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New IDF Social Media Policy for Soldiers a ‘Lost Cause,’ Cybersecurity Expert Tells TML
Israeli security forces take security measures during a protest in Hebron, West Bank on September 22, 2017. (Photo by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

New IDF Social Media Policy for Soldiers a ‘Lost Cause,’ Cybersecurity Expert Tells TML

Israel’s military tightened rules on soldier interviews, requiring obscured identities due to concerns over legal actions abroad. Soldiers’ social media posts have sparked accusations, revealing vulnerabilities in digital exposure

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released updated directives about media exposure on Wednesday, now requiring lower-ranking officers and soldiers to be interviewed only with obscured faces or their backs to the camera. The guidelines referred to interviews, and mainstream media coverage restricted the interview of soldiers of certain ranks pending approval. The directives did not refer to the use of social media, which is a significant challenge to the military and one that it has much less control over. 

This is almost a lost cause. The policy isn’t implemented. The information is so easy to collect.

“This is almost a lost cause,” Dr. Tal Pavel, a researcher on the connection between cybersecurity, international relations, and political science, told The Media Line. “The policy isn’t implemented. The information is so easy to collect.”

Dr. Sharon Haleva-Amir, an expert on law, technology, and social networks from the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University, suggests that the military should have a unit that monitors soldiers’ social media usage. 

This would be extremely difficult, especially due to the large number of social media applications available. Sometimes the content is so viral it is impossible to track, other times the content is only available to a restricted audience or in the case of Instagram stories, they disappear after a certain amount of time, making enforcement very difficult.

“This would be extremely difficult, especially due to the large number of social media applications available,” she told The Media Line. “Sometimes the content is so viral it is impossible to track, other times the content is only available to a restricted audience or in the case of Instagram stories, they disappear after a certain amount of time, making enforcement very difficult.”

Throughout the war, Israeli soldiers and officers have posted images and videos of themselves in Gaza and Lebanon. Some videos show them blowing up homes or institutions, sometimes jubilant as the explosion occurs. Others show themselves rummaging through the personal belongings of Gazans who have fled from their homes, now occupied by Israeli soldiers. Other, less incriminating perhaps, are selfies of combat soldiers in the middle of the battleground with massive destruction in the background. 

Some of the actions taken by soldiers are illegal and added to that, they are documenting and tagging themselves. The rules and directives have been unsuccessful in this global age. These directives apply mostly to youngsters, a generation that lives in and through social media. They don’t consider their actions illegal, and they want to flaunt what they have done. No regulation will help this.

“Some of the actions taken by soldiers are illegal and added to that, they are documenting and tagging themselves,” said Haleva-Amir. “The rules and directives have been unsuccessful in this global age. These directives apply mostly to youngsters, a generation that lives in and through social media. They don’t consider their actions illegal, and they want to flaunt what they have done. No regulation will help this.”

It is naïve to expect zero use. The expectation of privacy and anonymity in this day and age is misguided. But still, there is a gap between this expectation and the current lawlessness in this arena. There is no discipline.

“It is naïve to expect zero use,” Pavel added. “The expectation of privacy and anonymity in this day and age is misguided. But still, there is a gap between this expectation and the current lawlessness in this arena. There is no discipline.” 

According to the guidelines publicly available by the IDF, soldiers are not allowed to post anything above non-classified information to any social media platform unless they receive authorization to do so in advance. This information includes pictures, audio files, text, and location pinning. Soldiers violating the policy could be subject to punishment not detailed in the order entitled “Soldiers use of the online arena” from 2018. 

In recent weeks, the Israeli National Security Council has also published guidelines for Israelis, encouraging them not to post details about overseas trips in real-time and to “avoid talking about their military service…or posting content relating to it on social media.”

While the open nature of social media makes cyberstalking a relatively mundane task, caution is being encouraged. 

“It doesn’t need to be made any easier than it already is,” said Pavel. 

This comes after an Israeli reserve soldier was whisked away from Brazil earlier this week after a complaint was filed against him by a Palestinian organization that accused him of war crimes he allegedly committed in Gaza as part of Israel’s war in the territory. The incident, which ended with the return of the soldier to Israel on Wednesday, was just another in a string of incidents involving the exposure of soldiers using social media to police complaints and investigations abroad.

The soldier had reportedly been sought for questioning after being accused of “murdering thousands of children” in Gaza. 

Similar cases of soldiers being summoned to investigations in Cyprus and Sri Lanka have been reported by Israeli media outlets. 

“The Foreign Ministry asks Israelis to pay attention to their social media posts regarding their military service and to that anti-Israeli elements may use such posts in order to promote futile legal procedures against them,” read a statement released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry after the soldier was extracted from Brazil with the help of Israeli authorities. 

Social media has increasingly become another front in the war between Israel, the Palestinians, and their supporters. The front existed before the current Gaza war but has become a more prominent one. Efforts to hunt down Israeli soldiers and defense officials online have intensified, as social media posts have armed those seeking them with alleged evidence of their crimes. Pages on Telegram channels document soldiers, using their posts from Gaza and Lebanon as examples. 

Terrorist organizations have always been known for using state-of-the-art technology. They utilize technology for their entire physical life cycle – from spreading their ideology to fundraising, recruitment, and intelligence gathering. But also for documenting their actions. The aim of terror organizations is to terrorize, and documentation of actions is a critical part of this process.

“Terrorist organizations have always been known for using state-of-the-art technology,” Pavel told The Media Line. “They utilize technology for their entire physical life cycle – from spreading their ideology to fundraising, recruitment, and intelligence gathering. But also for documenting their actions. The aim of terror organizations is to terrorize, and documentation of actions is a critical part of this process.”

According to Pavel, the Salafi Jihadist group ISIS used the Telegram social media and instant messaging service prolifically in 2016 before the app became widely used. It did so in order to facilitate communication between potential recruits and disseminate propaganda.

Nowadays, the Palestinians are using the app in order to exchange information about Israeli soldiers they have monitored on social media. 

Hamas, the Gaza-based terrorist organization, has also used social media before in order to target Israeli soldiers. In 2017, the organization created dozens of fake Facebook profiles that sent messages to soldiers in order to lure them to share information about their military service. Soldiers who continued with the online exchange were sent an app to download, which was actually a virus meant to be planted on their phones. The attempt was thwarted, but not before several soldiers had downloaded the malware onto their devices.

This is just one example of the vulnerability of soldiers and the army to social media. 

One of the cornerstones of cybersecurity is education. If there is no education, there is no awareness, no policy, and no procedures.

“One of the cornerstones of cybersecurity is education,” Pavel said. “If there is no education, there is no awareness, no policy, and no procedures.”

Israel is under widespread criticism over its war against Hamas in Gaza, led by arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is leading a separate investigation regarding allegations of genocide against the Jewish state. 

The soldiers in Brazil and other similar cases of soldiers being targeted on social media have raised concerns in the country that not only high-ranking officials could face prosecution while abroad.

The goal of those behind the efforts to hunt down Israeli soldiers is to bring them to justice outside of Israel, using information collected about them online to find out about their whereabouts and file complaints against them in third countries by invoking universal jurisdiction. 

Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows a state to prosecute individuals for certain crimes, regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the alleged perpetrator, or the nationality of the victims. These crimes are genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, all of which Palestinians accuse of Israel in the current war. Any country has the authority to pursue justice if it has legislated laws that allow for universal jurisdiction, even if it has no direct connection to the crime.

Israel has repeatedly denied the allegations of war crimes against it. 

Meanwhile, amid a growing number of attempts around the world to bring charges against soldiers, the Israeli military appears to be lagging in how it is dealing with an increasingly prominent front in the war. 

“Israel faces an increasingly pro-Palestinian international community abroad,” said Haleva-Amir. “Of course, they will use anything they can get their hands on with no special means or investigators needed. Not using all that Israeli soldiers are posting on social media would be stupid on their part.”

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