The wording here is extremely dangerous. The government can label anything they disagree with, for example, when Netanyahu claimed Jews praying at the temple mount was incitement. Any criticism of Islam or criticism of government policies could be labeled as “incitement”.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) is working to promote the imposition of large fines for social media sites which refuse to remove content which constitutes incitement, the Galatz Hebrew radio station reported Thursday.

“If you can avoid huge fines and legal proceedings, then that is preferable [to leaving the offensive content up and being slapped with fines],” Shaked explained. “In the last terror wave, we felt that Israel’s sovereignty was compromised. We know how to stop terrorists at the border, but we were not able to stop the incitement on social media, which was the engine driving the terror wave.”

Shaked said that the fines for social media providers were a new concept in the fight against terror, but that they were a continuation of the so-called ‘Facebook Law’ which empowers Israeli courts to demand that social media sites immediately remove content which constitutes incitement to violence and murder.

Facebook and other social media sites, such as Twitter, have been criticized for not responding to their use as platforms to promote hate and incitement to murder and terrorism.