Earlier today, I received the following e-mail from Twitter’s legal department:
We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received correspondence from the Israeli State Attorney’s Office regarding your Twitter account, @richards1052.
The correspondence claims that the following Tweet is in violation of Israeli law:
השופט שמאי בקר חשוד בביצוע עבירות מין בבתו. צא"פ הוטל על זהותו
https://t.co/nj8UuAInSc— Tikun Olam 🍉 (@richards1052) May 18, 2016
Please note we may be obligated to take action regarding the content identified in the complaint in the future. Please let us know by replying to this email as soon as possible if you decide to voluntarily remove the content identified on your account.
If you believe we have contacted you in error, please let us know by replying to this email.
This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter.
Sincerely,
Twitter Legal
Some background is in order: in May, I published a post here about an Israeli judge, Shamai Becker, who stood accused of either raping or fondling his daughter’s breasts (there were two versions of the charges against him). I published the story because the judge’s attorneys had secured a judicial gag order preventing Israeli media from reporting it. I felt Israelis had a right to know that a senior judge had been accused of serious crimes and that they were forbidden from knowing about it.
One Israeli media outlet and an Israeli blog had also published his name and the charges. But Becker’s attorneys forced both to censor his name from their reports (the stories remain online in censored form). At least three (and possibly more) Israeli blogs maintain blog posts which cover this story and name Becker explicitly. Which means that Becker doesn’t care much about low-traffic Hebrew sites which expose his identity. But he does care about the same information being published at a much more visible venue like Twitter. This does raise the question of why the blog posts remain accessible if they too supposedly violate Israeli law. There appears to be a double standard at work here.
When I break such gags I always publish a Hebrew-language post so that Google’s Hebrew search feature will pick up the story and the person being protected. There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Israelis who already know the name, but don’t know the full story. They come in droves to this blog to learn what they’re prohibited from learning from their own media. This is an important feature of the mission of this blog.
The tweet I published, which the Israeli attorney general (AG) is protesting, and which Twitter is threatening to censor reads:
“Judge Shamai Becker is suspected of sexually molesting his daughter. A gag order prevents his identification.”
There are a number of interesting and provocative aspects of the attorney general’s actions and Twitter’s potential response. First, the Israeli government is claiming jurisdiction over Twitter content. Its argument is that Twitter must censor any tweet published by anyone, anywhere in the world that violates Israeli law. There might be some validity to this claim if I was an Israeli citizen and tweeted this message within Israel, where Israeli law holds sway. But this is far more sweeping than that.
I am not aware of any previous attempt by Israeli authorities to censor social media in this fashion. Even when the Shin Bet arrests Palestinians for posting calls for resistance to Israeli Occupation, it doesn’t seek to force Facebook, YouTube or Twitter to censor the “offending” posts. It merely arrests and prosecutes the user (which is bad enough). In this case, Israel can’t arrest me so it pursues an entity it can punish, Twitter.
The AG’s demand in this case does follow an ever more aggressive demand by Israel that social media platforms police their content and censor anything that criticizes Israel. Senior company officers have met with Israeli ministers who’ve lobbied for corporate censorship. So far, the claims Israeli officials have made about willingness of the companies to engage in such conduct have outstripped reality. In all cases, as far as is publicly known, the companies have listened intently and sympathetically, but agreed to nothing Israel has asked.
Luckily, Twitter has not made any decision yet in the matter. And luckily, unlike those Be Evil guys at Google, they haven’t pre-emptively taken down the tweet. They’ve at least given me a chance to mount a legal argument against that outcome (I am seeking counsel who will write a strong letter to Twitter’s legal department on my behalf).
Second, my tweet doesn’t violate any law in the U.S. where I live and where Twitter is based. The only reason Twitter would censor my tweet is to maintain good relations with Israel and protect its business there. In other words, if I am censored I will be sacrificed on the altar of business expedience. Perhaps one might understand even choosing this path except for the principle of freedom of speech and information. How would a social media platform which prides itself on championing the Arab Spring and unpopular, provocative speech everywhere, defend caving in this instance?
Interestingly, the AG has taken no action against my original blog post, which begins with the same Hebrew tweet.
Last month, the AG closed the case against Becker for lack of evidence. That does not mean “lack of guilt.” It means that the prosecution either couldn’t or didn’t want to find evidence to build a case against Becker. It does not mean he’s not a sexual predator or pedophile. It means the State couldn’t make its case. Though he remains a judge, he has not returned to the bench. An Israeli lawyer I consulted believes he will not do so. It’s possible that an arrangement was negotiated in which Becker agreed not to return to the bench in return for the State dropping its prosecution. Believe me, the State would not force a judge off the bench unless there was considerably more than smoke involved in the case. Of course, Becker continues to receive his full salary as a judge for essentially doing nothing.
Finally, I should note and give credit to Twitter that they have made no decision yet on this matter. They have also offered me the opportunity to explain and contest the AG’s characterization of my content. That’s to their credit.
The only proper response to the bullying of the AG and Becker’s attorneys should be to further disseminate my original Hebrew tweet (see above) on all possible social media platforms. I’d be grateful if all readers would take a stance for transparency, and accountability of public figures by letting Israeli officialdom know that we here adhere to different, freer standards.
An incredibly ineffective and late response from Israeli authorities (probably at the behest of the judge himself?) – a timely removal of this content would be one thing (all be it with all the problems of censorship) – but poking the subject two and half months later? They’re just increasing the dissemination (and -corroborating- the information as true, as if it was false presumably it wouldn’t violate the gag (possible libel in the false case, but…)). Quite moronic.
I don’t know what Twitter’s policy is, but I do know that Google, in similar instances, censors in a regional manner – thus if some information in censored say in Spain (to the EU’s idiotic “right to be forgotten” law for instance, or any number of local laws) – then a search performed in Spain (by IP address – an anon proxy will bypass this of course) will not show the information while a search in the US will. Thus Google will comply in terms of publishing the information on a local basis (at least in some instances).
Not sure the “right to be forgotten” can be compared to Israeli gags. It went as far and requiring Google to change search results while in Richard’s case, the request is to remove the source.
It would be an interesting for Israel to block this blog all together. After all, it is Richard’s sport to break those claiming “I felt Israelis had a right to know…”
Please don’t take his hobby away
@ Danny: Haredi ISPs have blocked this blog in Israel. But their reasons are different than the AG’s.
Haredi ISIS??? That is a new low for you!
Yes, those group are just the same! Using women as sex slaves, killing 1000’s in the name of religion.
When Hamas is called ISIS, you protest (and I agree with you) but somehow it is OK to write it about Jews.I guess the Spanish Inquisition was right about the Jewish people!
@ Danny: I typed on my smartphone “ISPs” & my “brilliant” auto-speller changed that to “ISIS,” which is NOT what I intended.
I don’t compare Haredim to ISIS. But I do compare some sects of Haredim to Taliban.
How do we “here” let Israeli Officialdom know that we live elsewhere where different standards prevail and we are not subject to Israeli law., but nice try??
I wonder if Richard has ever banned people and blocked content that appears on his Twitter account.
You betcha!
@Trippin’ Jon: what an idiotic statement. I am an individual user, not Twitter. Of course infuv8fual users can block other indiv8d6als. That’s the way Twitter works. It permits individuals to block other individuals.
What Twitter proposes is to permit a government to censor the tweet of a user who has not broken Twitter TOS, nor any U.S. law.
“For the past year, the Israeli police have been investigating charges against Israeli magistrate judge, Shamai Becker. He is accused of–depending on which source you consult–raping or fondling the breasts of his 14 year-old daughter.”
Pls consider the correct use of the term “paedophile” …
“Paedophilia is a sexual preference for sexual activity with
prepubescent children, typically under the age of 11.
[Written by Justice DiTomaso of the Superior Court of Justice in R. v Byers]
I’ll add my voice in support of your article that fundamentalism in religion adds to the woes of women and girls from abuse by authoritarian and paternalistic elders. A true problem across the globe.
I have received multiple reports of suspended accounts that are critical of Israel.
“Though he remains a judge, he has not returned to the bench” – You have just tweeted about Becker being back on the judge bench which was published the same day as this post. https://twitter.com/richards1052/status/761860139410452481
You might want to update the post accordingly.
@Danny: You might want to stop giving me editoriaI advice. The next time you try to be “helpful” I will not be so accommodating.