Google, YouTube to work with Israel to censor Palestinian conflict videos

Mumbai: Israeli Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely held meetings this week with representatives from Google and YouTube, to put censorship on Palestinian videos for inciting violence and terrorism.

According to a report by Israeli Newspaper Maariv, Hotovely will be working with Google and YouTube officials to collaboratively ‘monitor and prevent’ any publication of content that incites violence.

The deputy minister decided to take this step after citing increased number of terror campaign videos emerging in the region. She believes that negative influence of shrewd social media content is spreading fast and damaging Israel’s reputation.

There are a large number of videos on killings and execution floating around on YouTube, portraying how Israeli officers are executing Palestinians. Additionally there are other videos that generally emphasize the suffering of Palestine occupants.

However, concerned foreign journalists and freedom of speech advocates are against this move, as all reporters and media personnel working in Palestine will be required to register with the Israeli military, and all the stories have to be approved by the Israel Military Censor.

Over the years, YouTube and Google have been a prime factor leading to the emergence of citizen Journalism; however, this is something that the Israeli government wants to curb in occupied areas of Palestine.

No guidelines pertaining to the ‘monitoring and censorship’ program have been released, but Palestinians living in the areas illegally occupied by Israel will find it even harder share their side of the story.