Google, Facebook reps attend anti-Israel tech conference

Internet giants participated in an event that featured BDS activists promoting the demonization of Israel.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

As reported by Walla! News, Google and Facebook sent official representatives to Wednesday’s Digital Activism Conference being held by 7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement in El-Bireh, north of Jerusalem. The internet giants  participated in an event that featured topics such as “The Importance of Context in Documentation of Violence and Conflict,” presented by an “expert in YouTube policy.”

They joined senior representatives of organizations well known for Israel-bashing under the guise of protecting human rights. International groups such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch officials were in attendance alongside Ramallah-based Al-Haq, a Palestinian civil-rights NGO, and Al-Dameer, which gives support to jailed Palestinian terrorists. The BDS movement was also well-represented.

These are groups that have called in recent years for an economic boycott of Israel, acted to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officers and senior officials abroad, and push to get Israel tried by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes.

The stated goal of the conference was to improve Palestinians’ use of digital tools and to discuss “Israeli violations of Palestinian digital human rights.” It also included workshops on topics such as the correct use of cell phones to capture testimonies, the effective use of video-blog and mass-funding campaigns.

According to 7amleh’s website, last year’s conference also featured Facebook and YouTube speakers, the latter of whom discussed what content is and isn’t allowed on the site. It was recently reported that Israel’s success rate in getting the web giant to remove videos that incite terror was 85% in 2017.