Facebook rejects Israel allegations

Facebook is doing its share to remove abusive content from the social network, it said in an apparent rejection of Israeli allegations it was unco-operative in stemming messages that might spur Palestinian violence.

Beset by a 10-month-old surge in Palestinian street attacks, Israel says Facebook has been used to perpetuate such bloodshed.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist government is drafting legislation to enable it to order social media sites to remove postings deemed threatening.

Ramping up the pressure, public security minister Gilad Erdan accused Facebook of “sabotaging” Israeli police efforts by not co-operating with inquiries about potential suspects in the occupied West Bank and by “[setting] a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts”.

Facebook did not respond directly to Mr Erdan’s criticism, but said in a statement it conferred closely with Israel.

“We work regularly with safety organizations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook.

"There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform,” the statement said.