Shut Palestine Intifada page, Israel tells Facebook

We read:

"The Israeli government is demanding that Facebook remove a page calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel. The page, entitled Third Palestinian Intifada, has more than 340,000 fans.

In a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Israeli cabinet minister Yuli Edelstein says the page includes calls to kill Jews and of "liberating" Jerusalem through violence.

The page features a fist in the colours of the Palestinian flag. It calls on Palestinians to take to the streets after Friday prayers on May 15 and begin an uprising. "Judgment Day will be brought upon us only once the Muslims have killed all of the Jews," it reads.

Edelstein says the page incites to violence and violates Facebook content regulations.

Facebook had no immediate response to a request for comment, however the Bloomberg news service reported that it had received an emailed response from the company.

"While some kinds of comments and content may be upsetting for someone ­ criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or political ideology, for example - that alone is not a reason to remove the discussion," Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost reportedly said in the statement.

"We strongly believe that Facebook users have the ability to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content, groups or Pages that speak out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas."

Source

Facebook has now caved in but a new page has been set up which is substantially the same -- highlighting the folly of censorship attempts in the age of the internet.

As conservatives often say, the answer to disapproved-of speech is more speech, not censorship. So let's see if someone sets up a page saying that Mecca should be nuked. I'm guessing that it would get a big following. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.