According to İFÖD, the Turkish government is preparing legislation that would require social media users to verify their identities using national identification numbers.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

As President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deepens his hold over Turkey’s institutions, a sweeping crackdown on the country’s digital space is accelerating, raising fresh concerns that the last remaining avenues for dissent are being brought under state control.

According to a report by the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), more than 1.5 million websites and domain names had been blocked in Turkey in 2025, underscoring what experts described as the government’s growing use of online censorship as a routine tool to suppress dissent and tighten political control.

Turkey’s media landscape has been steadily reshaped in recent years through regulatory pressure, ownership consolidation, and state-aligned corporate takeovers that have shifted much of the country’s television and newspaper sector toward pro-government influence.

Rights groups and media watchdogs say the result has been a sharply diminished space for independent journalism, as critical outlets face mounting financial and legal pressures while pro-government media groups increasingly dominate public discourse.

With traditional media increasingly constrained, social media has emerged as one of the last broad-reaching spaces where opposition politicians, independent journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens can still bypass government-aligned outlets and reach large audiences directly.

Now, Ankara appears to be taking the next step.

According to İFÖD, the Turkish government is preparing legislation that would require social media users to verify their identities using national identification numbers, significantly expanding state oversight of online activity.

Experts warn the proposal would strip away much of the anonymity that still exists online in a country where thousands of users have faced investigations, detentions, and criminal prosecutions over posts critical of the government.

Authorities are also advancing plans for new restrictions on virtual private networks (VPNs), tools that encrypt internet traffic and are widely used to circumvent state-imposed internet filters and access otherwise blocked sites.

The IFÖD report argues that Turkey’s censorship apparatus has moved well beyond removing individual posts or blocking isolated websites, instead describing a sophisticated structure capable of restricting access at multiple levels simultaneously—from social media posts and news sites to messaging services and broader internet infrastructure.

Experts warn that these measures reflect a broader shift in how Turkish authorities are reshaping control over the digital space, increasingly deploying sweeping online restrictions during periods of political tension when information spreads beyond official channels.

Moving far beyond the regulation of online content, critics say the expanding digital crackdown has become a key instrument for narrowing political space—used to silence opposition voices, intimidate journalists, and stifle public dissent.

Democracy advocates warn that it also serves to obscure a deepening system of internal repression, as authorities tighten control over information flows, reshape the online environment, and consolidate political power while maintaining the appearance of democratic governance.

The growing concerns over Turkey’s democratic backsliding extend well beyond its borders.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament sharply criticized Ankara over what the lawmakers described as a pattern of transnational repression, political interference abroad, and support for extremist and ideological networks.

In a 2025 report on Turkey, EU lawmakers warned of what they described as an increasing pattern of intimidation, forced repatriations, and the alleged misuse of international cooperation mechanisms against Turkish nationals abroad, with government-linked practices drawing particular concern.

The report also noted that Ankara had sought to influence political dynamics within EU member states, pointing to activities targeting diaspora communities and describing the state-run Anadolu Agency as a tool for projecting state narratives beyond Turkey’s borders.

With Turkish authorities extending their campaign against opposition figures overseas, experts point to a coordinated apparatus involving diplomatic pressure, intelligence activity, legal tools, and state-aligned media used to track, pressure, and target critics abroad.

European lawmakers also reiterated longstanding concerns about democratic backsliding in Turkey, citing the erosion of judicial independence, increasing restrictions on media freedom, and persistent pressure on civil society organizations.

They further raised concerns over the prosecution of journalists and opposition figures, persistent allegations of corruption, and the continued non-implementation of European Court of Human Rights rulings.

Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Erdogan of “crushing” democracy in his own country, lambasting Ankara’s use of police force against political opposition figures.

Last month, Turkish riot police forced their way into the main opposition party’s headquarters to evict its ousted leadership.

Police stormed the Republican People’s Party (CHP) building in Ankara, firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse supporters and officials who had barricaded themselves inside and were shouting and throwing objects at the entrance.

A Turkish court ousted CHP leader Özgür Özel, annulling the results of the 2023 party congress where he was elected chairman, citing irregularities in a ruling that dealt a major blow to Erdogan’s challengers and posed a test for democracy in Turkey.

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Former Iranian minister Reza Taghipour outlined scenarios in which Iranian forces could sever underwater internet cables to disrupt global markets and banking systems and cause widespread financial and online chaos.

Former Iranian Communications Technology Minister Reza Taghipour Threatens to Cut Main Submarine Internet Cables in the Straits of Hormuz and Bab Al-Mandab, Triggering a “Black Swan” Crisis in Global Financial Transactions, Disabling Stock Markets pic.twitter.com/hruT5Qzxua

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 26, 2026

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Mouthpiece for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps proposes Iranian control over undersea fiber optic cables in Strait of Hormuz used for global internet infrastructure, says Tehran should find ways to extract money from foreign companies for use of the connections.

By World Israel News Staff

Media outlets which serve as mouthpieces for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have proposed Tehran take control over the undersea fiber-optic cables on the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz which play a critical role in the global internet infrastructure.

The proposal, advanced in recent items by Tasnim and Fars, is that Tehran should treat submarine fiber-optic cables in the strait as a strategic asset subject to Iranian regulation, fees and control.

The outlets framed the cables as an overlooked source of leverage at a time when the war has already turned Hormuz into a central arena of confrontation.

Tasnim said Iran should move beyond what it described as an outdated view of the strait focused mainly on shipping and energy. It argued that the same waterway also carries critical data traffic, including financial transactions and communications used by global technology companies.

The outlet proposed a three-part policy: licensing fees for foreign cable operators, annual payments to renew those licenses, and a requirement that large technology firms operating through the infrastructure comply with Iranian law. It also called for Iranian companies to receive exclusive authority over cable maintenance and repairs.

Fars made a similar case on X, calling the undersea network a “hidden highway” and saying Iran could use it as part of its “digital power.”

The outlet said damage or disruption to the cables, even for a short period, could impose major economic costs, hinting at the threat of cutting the cables in order to assert Iranian control and extract payments from foreign companies.

Neither outlet explicitly called for cutting the cables. But the coordinated focus on permits, tolls, legal jurisdiction and maintenance control suggested that Tehran-linked media are testing a new line of pressure against Gulf states and Western companies dependent on communications routes through the Persian Gulf.

The messaging follows an earlier Tasnim report that mapped internet cables, landing stations and cloud infrastructure around the Gulf, including systems serving the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. That report argued that Iran’s Gulf rivals are more vulnerable than Tehran to disruptions in maritime internet routes.

The Strait of Hormuz is already one of the world’s most sensitive chokepoints because of the volume of oil and gas that passes through it. The Iranian media campaign seeks to add another layer to that vulnerability: the flow of data beneath the same waters.

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The nationwide internet shutdown in Iran continues, as authorities tighten control over digital life.

By World Israel News Staff

Nearly two months after a total internet shutdown imposed by the Islamic regime following the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, the vast majority of Iranians remain disconnected from the global web.

Only a small segment of the population has been granted access to a highly restricted, government-controlled intranet with limited functionality.

Citing national security concerns, Iranian authorities blocked internet access for the country’s roughly 90 million people in a sweeping move that began in late February. The shutdown followed earlier, targeted blackouts introduced during mass protests in January.

Amid growing pressure, the regime has begun offering select users access to a service called Internet Pro, a state-regulated platform available to certain businesses, schools, and industries.

Users of Internet Pro are unable to access major social media platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram — tools widely used by Iranians to communicate with the outside world. The AI service ChatGPT is also blocked. However, its Chinese counterpart, DeepSeek, is reportedly accessible..

Critics say presenting Internet Pro as a viable alternative to open internet access is misleading.

“This is ridiculous and unacceptable because all groups in society, for any reason, need and deserve access to the internet,” a young woman in Tehran told Al Jazeera.

“This move excludes most people who lack the connections needed to gain access, including the elderly, and it effectively prolongs the shutdown,” she added.

According to two sources cited by Al Jazeera, the Iranian government has also implemented new infrastructure changes designed to further strengthen its control over online activity nationwide. These measures are intended to enhance surveillance capabilities and restrict access even more tightly.

Meanwhile, Iranians seeking unrestricted internet access continue to engage in a digital cat-and-mouse game with authorities. Many rely on VPNs and techniques such as SNI spoofing to bypass censorship, but these workarounds are often short-lived. The government frequently identifies and blocks these methods, forcing users to continually search for new ways to reconnect with the outside world.

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Iranian authorities have even warned that citizens suspected of accessing the internet through virtual private networks (VPNs)—tools that bypass government censorship—could face arrest or imprisonment.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Iran’s internet blackout became the longest such nationwide shutdown ever recorded over the weekend, as the regime continued to face mounting military pressure, internal unrest, and growing isolation.

According to NetBlocks, an internet-monitoring watchdog that tracks global connectivity disruptions, Iran’s blackout entered its 37th consecutive day on Sunday, making it the longest nation-scale internet shutdown on record after authorities severed internet access as the war with the US and Israel broke out in late February.

The blackout continued on Monday, with the general public cut off from international networks for over 888 hours.

With the regime attempting to suppress internal opposition and silence domestic dissent, the blackout has effectively cut millions of Iranians off from independent reporting on the war and access to global news.

“We constantly find ourselves searching for ways to reconnect, just to be able to hear reliable news,” a 47-year-old woman in the central city of Isfahan told AFP on Saturday.

“Being without internet feels like being without oxygen to me. I feel trapped and suffocated,” a 53-year-old man in Tehran also said.

Iranian authorities have even warned that citizens suspected of accessing the internet through virtual private networks (VPNs)—tools that bypass government censorship—could face arrest or imprisonment.

According to state media reports, Iranian security forces have arrested several citizens in recent weeks for using the Starlink satellite internet system, which allows users to bypass state-controlled terrestrial infrastructure.

Iran’s latest internet shutdown marks the second nationwide blackout in less than two months, after authorities previously imposed an 18-day outage in January during mass anti-government protests, which security forces violently crushed, leaving tens of thousands of demonstrators tortured or killed.

Human rights groups warn the regime has repeatedly used nationwide internet shutdowns as a tool to intensify its crackdown on opposition movements and conceal ongoing abuses from international scrutiny.

In recent years, Iranian authorities have accelerated efforts to sever the country’s reliance on the global web by advancing the regime-backed “National Internet” project aimed at consolidating state control over digital communications and information flows.

Meanwhile, the Islamist regime continues to face relentless pressure from US and Israeli strikes as the conflict escalates and prospects for negotiations become increasingly fragile.

In one of its latest attacks, Israel announced that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Majid Khademi and Quds Force special operations commander Asghar Bagheri were both killed over the weekend.

This latest strike on leadership represents a “significant blow to Iran’s intelligence leadership at a time when the regime is already under sustained pressure,” an Israeli security official told Fox News.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Khademi orchestrated overseas terrorist operations and oversaw surveillance targeting Iranian civilians during the regime’s brutal crackdown on protests.

Part of Iran’s elite military force, Bagheri coordinated the recruitment of terrorist operatives across the Middle East and directed deadly attacks against US and Israeli targets abroad.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the IDF also struck Iran’s largest petrochemical facility in Asaluyeh, a blow that has effectively taken offline the two plants responsible for roughly 85 percent of the country’s petrochemical exports, crippling a key pillar of Iran’s economy and export capacity.

Katz described the strikes as “a severe economic blow to the Iranian regime, amounting to tens of billions of dollars.”

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to continue to attack the national infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime with all its might,” the Israeli defense chief said.

“The Iranian terror regime will discover that the continued aggression against Israel and the cowardly and criminal fire at Israeli citizens will lead to the deepening of the economic and strategic damage it is paying and the collapse of its capabilities,” he continued.

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A state-imposed internet outage provided Tehran the cover it needed to slaughter as many as 30,000 civilians during historic nationwide demonstrations in January.

By Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon

A coalition of advocacy groups petitioned House Foreign Affairs Committee leadership to immediately advance three pieces of bipartisan legislation that would help Iran’s embattled population to access the internet, according to a copy of a Monday letter shared with the Washington Free Beacon.

The three measures would collectively help the Iranian population use secure networks to circumvent the regime’s internet blackouts and will likely receive significant bipartisan support once sent to a full vote in the House of Representatives.

The advocacy groups recommend in their letter that the committee pass the bills as one larger measure “as a comprehensive package to advance internet freedom, human rights, and transparency for the Iranian people.”

The 12 groups, led by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ sister organization FDD Action, sent the letter to committee chairman Brian Mast (R., Fla.) and ranking member Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) amid ongoing nationwide internet blackouts meant to keep Iranian protesters off the street.

The Islamic Republic plunged its people into darkness when the United States and Israel launched their military campaign against the regime, repeating a similar tactic it employed earlier this year.

A state-imposed internet outage provided Tehran the cover it needed to slaughter as many as 30,000 civilians during historic nationwide demonstrations in January.

As of now, the Iranian people’s options for overcoming the blackouts are extremely limited.

Internet monitoring firm NetBlocks assessed over the weekend that “few circumvention tools work as authorities crack down on satellite and VPN users outside the state-approved whitelist.”

“Internet shutdowns have become one of the regime’s most powerful tools of repression—facilitating violence, mass arrests, and grave human rights abuses while preventing Iranians from communicating with one another and the outside world,” the advocacy groups—which also include the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, the Vandenberg Coalition, the National Union for Democracy in Iran, and the Iranian American Bar Association, among others—wrote.

“More recently, the regime has again imposed widespread internet disruptions during this current period of conflict, further cutting off critical lines of communication between the Iranian people and the global community.”

The Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act aims to facilitate “the immediate expansion of unrestricted internet access and civilian lines of communication across Iran” by authorizing the U.S. government to research satellite and direct-to-cell technologies that could cut through the blackout without regime interference, according to the bill text.

It also directs the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit to develop new technology that could do the same.

The second measure in the package, the IRAN Act, instructs the State Department to lead a government-wide task force aimed at “providing to Iranian civilians the technology and other tools necessary to access the open internet”—effectively implementing the provisions in the first bill.

The examples listed in the bill include VPNs that obscure a user’s location and end-to-end encrypted messaging software.

The third bill, the FREEDOM Act, complements both measures by requiring the State Department, Treasury Department, and FCC to provide Congress with a comprehensive strategy to boost internet freedom in Iran.

The measure directs those agencies to “analyze threats like drone-based platforms and signal jamming, and survey telecom providers operating in Iran,” according to the groups’ letter.

Neither Mast nor Meeks immediately responded to requests for comment on the letter or legislation.

“These three bills address complementary aspects of internet repression in Iran,” the organizations wrote. “They form a comprehensive bipartisan response to internet shutdowns and censorship in Iran.”

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The letter argued that bipartisan support for such U.S.-backed tools has remained strong over the past decades, but recent funding cuts must be restored if this support of Iranians’ internet freedom is to be sustained.

By Dinah Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a bipartisan congressional letter on Wednesday urging the United States to fund programs that would help keep Iran’s internet open.

The letter argued that the brave people of Iran risked their lives by taking to the streets and protest, and the regime responded by shutting down the internet and plunging the country into nationwide communications blackout, which allowed it to conceal brutal massacres from the rest of the world while also preventing Iranians from communicating with each other and showing the outside world the truth about Iran’s brutal crackdown.

“We write today in defense of America’s long-standing and bipartisan commitment to support programs that enable internet freedom for the people of Iran, which is more important than ever as the people of Iran protest against the regime in record numbers,” the letter read.

“In light of the current events in Iran, we urge the administration to surge resources to quickly enable critical internet freedom support to the largest pro-American population in the Muslim Middle East.”

Small groups of people managed to stay online using U.S.-backed VPNs and other U.S.-backed tools.

The letter argued that bipartisan support for such U.S.-backed tools has remained strong over the past decades, but recent funding cuts must be restored if this support of Iranians’ internet freedom is to be sustained.

Otherwise, Iranians will be forced to use government-provided resources, opening them up to the risk of government spying and putting their lives in danger.

“For over two decades, administrations from both parties have consistently invested in virtual private networks (VPNs) and anti-censorship technology programs to support the Iranian people,” the letter said, explaining the bipartisan nature of the programs.

“Specifically, U.S. funded programs … have all supported unrestricted access to the internet in Iran for its civilians,” the letter added, citing the bipartisan Iran Internet Freedom Act that provided $15 million per year for 2024 and 2025 to fund tools that allowed private internet access inside Iran.

“Without U.S. leadership, an entire generation of Iranians would have remained in the dark — and the most powerful source of pressure against the Islamic Republic, the Iranian people themselves, would have been neutralized,” the letter continued.

The letter further maintained that continued funding is in the best interest of the United States because the Iranian regime poses a national security threat due to its nuclear ambitions and its funneling of weaponry to Russia.

“As we watch brave Iranians take to the streets, it is clear that supporting the Iranian people’s access to information is not a partisan issue but a matter of national security, as well as meeting legislative requirements for a strategy for promoting internet freedom in Iran,” the letter concluded.

“In a world where the Islamic Republic talks of bolstering its nuclear and missile programs, threatens U.S. interests, and supplies drones to Russia to be used against U.S. partners in Europe, America cannot rely solely on military tools. The United States must pair its maximum pressure on the regime with maximum support for the Iranian people.”

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Starlink began operating in most areas of the Jewish state on Thursday after receiving the ministry’s approval in early 2024.

By JNS

The launch of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in Israel currently excludes 500,000-plus citizens living in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem’s Ministry of Communications confirmed to JNS on Monday.

“The Starlink service was launched for the first time last week and is still operating in a basic format,” the ministry said in a statement to JNS. “As stated in our announcement about the launch, the ministry is working to expand the service, including making it available nationwide.”

The Communications Ministry statement noted that high-speed fiber-optic internet lines are currently available to nearly 95% of Israeli households, “including large areas in Judea and Samaria.”

Starlink began operating in most areas of the Jewish state on Thursday after receiving the ministry’s approval in early 2024.

“Following the license granted by Minister of Communications Dr. Shlomo Karhi to Starlink in 2024, and after completing all required coordination with the company, Starlink has begun providing basic service in the country last week,” the ministry said.

The government approval includes “the establishment of fixed stations for households and public buildings that will enable satellite internet connectivity,” it said.

“The ministry will continue working to expand services, including the activation of mobile stations and more.”

Israel’s security agencies also approved the use of Starlink in the Gaza Strip on a limited, case-by-case basis, in instances where it has been confirmed that the user poses “no concern of risk or possibility of endangering national security,” the ministry said in February.

Asked by JNS whether it agreed to exclude Judea and Samaria’s residents during the talks with Musk, the Communications Ministry refused to respond, only emphasizing that it was in the process of deploying “dozens” of new cellular towers throughout the area.

SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not respond to a request for comment.

Judea and Samaria’s Jewish population stands around 529,455, or roughly 5.35% of Israel’s population, according to a report published in January, which cited official Interior Ministry data.

The natural growth of the region’s residents is expected to result in a population in excess of 600,000 by 2030, almost 700,000 by 2035 and more than one million by 2050, the study added.

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Social media giants not doing enough to purge antisemitic content, watchdog group warns, noting 180% increase in Holocaust denial and antisemitic content on the internet in 2022.

By World Israel News Staff

According to a report by Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA), the prevalence of antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, and Israel-hating content on social media has surged by 180% in the past year.

FOA monitored major social networks, including Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, VK, and newer networks like Spotify, LinkedIn, Telegram, and GAB, reporting all instances of antisemitic content in accordance with the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and directly to the networks.

Sixty percent of all flagged posts were found on Twitter, while VK and Facebook followed with 14% and 10%, respectively.

FOA categorized all content into three groups: Holocaust denial, classical antisemitism, and hatred of Israel.

Around 64% of the content was classified as Holocaust denial and classic antisemitism, while 36% was aimed at Israel with calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the desecration of its flag.

Only 5% of this content was taken down. Approximately 35% of posts were removed, including those containing conspiracy theories about supposed Jewish links to the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 epidemic.

Barak Aharon, FOA’s director of monitoring, stated that the findings indicate that social media giants are not doing enough to prevent the publication of antisemitic content.

The report called on social networks to adopt an uncompromising policy and actively take steps to prevent the distribution of such content. FOA founder and CEO Tomer Aldubi revealed that the watchdog trained over 200 volunteers over the past year to remove antisemitic content from the internet.

CyberWell, a group that employs AI models to monitor and combat antisemitism online, reported that only 2.3% of antisemitic posts on major social media networks involve calls for or attempts to justify violence against Jews. However, 90% of such posts were found on Twitter, rendering it the most violent network regarding antisemitic content.

All five major networks (TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) have policies against expressions of antisemitism and Holocaust denial, but there are differences in the extent to which users can access such content.

Facebook denies a user trying to search for Holocaust denial-related expressions and recommends fact-checking, while Twitter imposes zero restrictions on searching for antisemitic content.

Although YouTube also primarily does not restrict searches, it has a more stringent enforcement policy, resulting in minimal results for such searches, with little to no authentic antisemitic content or Holocaust denial material. TikTok prohibits users from searching for Holocaust denial content and displays a message recommending verification of historical facts in both English and Arabic languages.

The report also highlighted that the types of stereotypes associated with Jewish people vary across social media platforms. On TikTok, Jews are often portrayed as exerting control over the world, while on Twitter, the primary stereotype is that Jews are greedy and obsessed with money.

In October, there was a surge in antisemitic posts on social media, which coincided with rapper Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks.

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Israel-based firm Adnimation granted Google Certified Publishing Partner status, enjoyed by just 57 companies around the globe.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli ad tech company has been selected for a prestigious enhanced Google status shared by just 57 other companies around the world.

Adnimation, a Modi’in- based firm that works with publishers to monetize their content with innovative advertising, announced on Wednesday that it has received internet search engine giant Google’s official stamp of approval, being recognized as a Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP).

Adnimation is the third Israeli company to be recognized as a GCPP.

In receiving this exclusive status, Adnimation has been recognized by Google for its effective and trusted monetization solution for publishers, consistent growth, and the utilization of advanced technology.

Google uses the GCPP badge as a symbol of trust for online publishers, indicating that the company they are working with has been approved by Google and has a track record of success in maximizing ad revenue for publishers.

“Being recognized as a GCPP is a testament to Adnimation’s expertise and commitment to delivering leading ad management services to publishers,” said Maor Davidovich, Co-Founder and CEO of Adnimation. “This is a significant milestone that recognizes years of hard work and achievements, and we look forward to utilizing this new status to further support the success of our publishers.”

As a GCPP, Adnimation can now offer added benefits to its publishing partners, such as early access to Google products.

Tomer Treves, Co-Founder and President of Adnimation, said: “Since Adnimation’s founding in 2013, our goal has been to represent publishers in an industry largely focused on advertisers. Our admission into the GCPP program is a vote of confidence in our work, which was only made possible thanks to our amazing partnering publishers.”

Adnimation currently works with hundreds of publishers, providing services to companies in six continents and managing billions of ad impressions per month.

In May 2022, Adnimation became the first company in the world to launch Google’s CTV monetization product, enabling Adnimation to use its advanced technology to offer Google ads to CTV and OTT publishers.

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The Jewish state jumped three spots in a year due to its overwhelming score in internet affordability in times of high inflation.

By James Spiro, CTech

The fourth annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index has reported that Israel is now ranked at the top of its list, beating out 116 other countries and overtaking Denmark after its two-year lead. The report is conducted after considering five ‘fundamental digital wellbeing pillars’: internet quality, e-government, e-infrastructure, internet affordability, and e-security.

Since last year, mobile internet speed in Israel has improved by 30% (12.2 Mbps), and fixed broadband speed has grown by 15.8% (23.3 Mbps).

Israel’s mobile internet is the most affordable in the world: residents can buy 1GB of mobile internet in Israel for as cheap as five seconds of work per month, 58 times less than in the United States. On average, people have to work six minutes more to afford broadband internet in 2022.

Last year, the most affordable mobile internet in the world belonged to Denmark, but in this year’s edition it dropped to 9th place. Fixed broadband, however, costs Israeli citizens 19 minutes each month, ranking it 28th.

The quality of Israel’s internet, signaled by its speed, stability, and growth, ranks 21st in the world and is 31% better than the global average. Israel’s worst score out of the five pillars comes in e-government, where it ranks 33rd. E-infrastructure and e-security rank 28th and 32nd, respectively. Its overwhelming high score in affordability has helped it achieve the top overall ranking, despite its modest performance in other pillars.

Global inflation rates this year have caused fixed broadband internet to become less affordable around the world for the second year in a row. This can have devastating effects on countries with a widened economic gap between their citizens, and current inflation is adding pressure on low-income households that need internet.

Despite this, Israel can boast the most affordable internet in the world and takes the leading position in the whole of Asia.

“While countries with a strong digital quality of life tend to be those of advanced economies, our global study found that money doesn’t always buy digital happiness,” explains Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, Head of PR at Surfshark.

“That is why, for the fourth year in a row, we continue analyzing the Digital Quality of Life to see how different nations keep up with providing the basic digital necessities for their citizens,” he stressed. “Most importantly, our research seeks to show the full picture of the global digital divide that millions of people are suffering from.”

Seven of the top 10 countries with a high Digital Quality of Life score are based in Europe. Israel is followed by Denmark, which was knocked off the top spot, Germany, France, and Sweden. Great Britain was ranked 9th and the United States ranked 12th.

The Digital Quality of Life Index is based on the United Nations open-source information, the World Bank, Freedom House, the International Communications Union, and other sources. This year, the report includes seven more countries, most of which are African.

Surfshark is a privacy protection toolset to help users control their online presence. Its suite contains a VPN audited by independent security experts, a certified antivirus, a privacy search tool, and a data leak alert system.

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ADL survey identifies Facebook the harshest place for Jews and other minorities.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Anti-Defamation League’s fourth annual survey of online hate shows that individuals in marginalized groups are abused at disproportionately high levels, and the numbers aren’t going down despite greater recognition of the problem.

The harshest place to be online by far was Facebook, with 68 percent of the harassment reported there to date, although it has gone down to 57% in the last year.

The runners-up were Instagram and Twitter, with some 27% and 21% saying they had suffered on these sites in the past 12 months, numbers that are similar to their history to date.

Among those harassed the most percentage-wise were the LBGTQ+ community, Jews, youth and blacks.

While Jews are an estimated one percent of the adult American population, they experienced online harassment at similar rates as non-Jews. According to the findings, 37% reported experiencing some kind of abuse at some point in their lives, with 23% reporting “severe” harassment. When asked about the last year specifically, the overall number dropped to 21%.

Severe harassment includes physical threats, sustained harassment, stalking, sexual harassment, doxing and swatting. Doxing is when one’s private information is released online, and swatting is having an emergency vehicle dispatched to one’s home as a hoax.

Jews were far more likely to attribute harassment they experienced to their religion than non-Jews: 37% compared to 14% of non-Jews. They were also much more likely be worried about future harassment due to their religion (83% to 44%).

Far more attributed the motivation for the hatred directed their way to their political views instead, with 64% saying this was the reason for the harassment, compared to 43% of non-Jews saying that this was the reason for being assaulted online.

The ADL believes its youth survey (those aged 13-17) was the first of its kind, and reported “alarmingly high” numbers for this group. Nearly half (47%) reported ever experiencing some type of harassment, with 25% saying it had been “severe.” Over two thirds attributed it to their physical appearance (36%) or race/ethnicity (30%).

More than a third (36%) were harassed in the past 12 months, 15% of it severe. Almost a third (29%) experienced emotional or mental health challenges as a result.

Among the various groups, the Asian American community was the one that experienced the largest spike in harassment over the last year, jumping from 21% in 2021 to 39% in 2022.

While overall, only 8% of the people surveyed reported the online hate to police, that possible outcome didn’t even make the list for either the Jewish or Asian populations. They did outnumber their counterparts in reporting the problem to the platforms themselves, with 25% of them doing so compared to the average of 17% of the others.

Whether the platforms are doing enough in response is debatable. Online harassment in general has only gone down 5% in the last year, to 23%, and the rate of severe harassment only declined from 14% to 12%.

“Social media companies are nowhere near where they need to be when it comes to hate and harassment on their platforms,” said ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt upon release of the report, officially entitled “Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience 2022.”

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New Israeli regulation will force operators of social media ‘bots’ to clearly mark automated messages.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel is taking aim at automated social media accounts, in a bid to combat the spread of “fake news”.

Last week, the Justice Ministry and the Communications Ministry drafted a new bill, dubbed the “Bots Law”, which would require social media networks to regulate automated accounts, popularly known as “bots”.

The bill would, if passed, create greater transparency on social media networks, mandating that operators of “bot” accounts ensure that those accounts are clearly labeled, so that social media users can distinguish them from authentic accounts.

While “bots” would still be legal if the new law is passed, social media outlets will be required to remove automated accounts which are not properly labelled. The operators of such accounts will also face criminal prosecution.

Furthermore, the bill would require operators of automated accounts that are sending messages that are not properly labelled to compensate social media users exposed to such messages.

Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope) and Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (New Hope) are both pushing for the legislation, calling on Israel to take action to end the distribution of “fake news”.

“Social media networks offer many benefits, but at the same time have turned into fertile ground for the spreading of fake news, poison, and anonymous incitement to violence,” said Minister Sa’ar. “Technological development has outpaced regulation.”

Hendel said the “time has come to put an end to fake news distributed by social media bots.”

“Bots are a technological development with many advantages, but they carry the risk of polluting the discourse on networks by such and other factors that seek to influence public opinion, trade and more.”

“Everyone has the right to know whether they are having an online conversation with a real person or with a bot operated by some other entity.”

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Popular messaging tool described as “central focal point for Russian disinformation.”

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

Telegram, the widely-used messaging app, has been compromised by Russia, according to a NATO assessment reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday.

“Telegram is not really as it used to be,” Janis Sarts, the director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga, Latvia, told the Examiner. “I do have reasons to believe that there is not full integrity. … Certainly, I would not see it as a secure platform.”

Sarts said his concerns were with the reliability of Telegram’s encryption, without going into detail. He also said the app carries a high risk of Russian disinformation. “The integrity of that platform is under the question, from my perspective,” he said.

The messaging service, which has 700 million monthly users, has become a key platform for Ukrainians and Russians to both receive and disseminate info about the fighting in Ukraine.

Sarts described Telegram as “central focal point for Russian disinformation.”

“That is how [Russian authorities] circumvent the blocks that the Facebooks, Instagrams, and others have made. So they operate through the Telegram groups and use them then to post the material [on] all other social media platforms,” he said.

Telegram was launched by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov. The two founded Russia’s popular social network, VK, but left the country in 2014 saying VK had been taken over by cronies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The brothers obtained citizenship in the United Arab Emirates, where they founded Telegram.

Telegram is registered in British Virgin Islands but it operations are based in Dubai.

It is currently blocked in Iran and China, and was blocked in Russia in 2018-2021.

Telegram spokesman Remi Vaughn told the Examiner, “Telegram has never had a partnership in any form with the Russian government,” stressing that the company had already been banned by Moscow.

On a related note, Buzzfeed reported on Friday, Chinese engineers working for TikTok’s parent company, Byte Dance, were able to repeatedly access data about millions of U.S. users of the video platform. The report was based on leaked audio tapes of internal TikTok meetings.

Byte Dance is headquartered in Beijing.

In 2020, the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok over concerns that China would collect data on millions of Americans. TikTok’s data is stored in the U.S.

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Once again, the authoritarian heart of the Left is revealed.

By Robert Spencer, FrontPageMag

One would think that a former president of the United States would be a staunch defender of the First Amendment. When it comes to Barack Obama, however, you’d think wrong.

Obama spoke Wednesday at an event sponsored by The Atlantic and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy.” In the course of a long and rambling discussion with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama called for government control over the Internet in order to stem the “demand for crazy” that was spreading what he called “disinformation.”

As Leftists always do, Obama claimed that this “disinformation” was threatening “our democracy,” that is, the Left’s political and cultural hegemony.

Obama first insisted, with his characteristic near-incoherence: “I am close to a First Amendment absolutist. I believe in the idea of not just free speech, but also that you deal with bad speech with good speech, that you engage, um, that, that, that, that the exceptions to that are very narrow, um, and, and, and, y’know, particularly, uh, among this cohort of folks in college, and I’ve talked to my daughters about this, um, y’know, I don’t want us to be such a society of manners that, like, we can’t, we feel like our feelings are hurt and we can’t hear something that, uh, somebody says, and, and, and we wilt. Uh, I think, uh, I want us all as citizens to be in the habit of being able to hear stuff that we disagree with and be able to answer with our words.”

His First Amendment absolutism, however, only went so far.

Combating ‘disinformation’

After a good bit more rambling, Obama got around to asserting that in order to limit the spread of what he called “toxic information,” it would be “reasonable for us as a society to have a debate, and then to put in place a combination of regulatory measures and, uh, industry norms, uh, that leave intact the opportunity for these platforms to make money, but say to them that, there, there, there’s certain practices that we are not, that we don’t think are good for our society and we’re gonna discourage.”

There goes the First Amendment.

This is because, he explained, “I do think that there is a demand for crazy on the internet that we have to grapple with,” and that this involves “a systematic effort to either promote false information, to suppress true information, for the purpose of political gain, financial gain, enhancing power, suppressing others, targeting those you don’t like.”

Among these, “Roughly 40 percent of the country appears convinced that the current president was elected fraudulently and that the election was rigged,” and 30-35% reject the “medical miracle” of vaccines. It was important, Obama said, to reassert “the value of, y’know, expertise and, uh, science.”

Sure. But it’s remarkable that Obama would be calling for “regulatory measures” to combat “disinformation” right after the Hunter Biden laptop story, which the news organizations Obama would tout as the most reliable dismissed as disinformation for a year and a half, has now been definitively acknowledged to be true.

Does Obama’s sumptuous new beachfront mansion in Hawaii not have the Internet hooked up yet? Has he really not heard about this, or does he really think that we haven’t?

Obama should know

The Hunter Biden laptop is the clearest indication that regulatory measures designed to protect the public from “disinformation” can prevent the public from learning genuine and important information that is inconvenient to those who have the power to enable that information to be labeled “disinformation.”

If Obama is really as “close to a First Amendment absolutist” as he claims to be, he should acknowledge that there have been many other cases lately in which what was dismissed as “disinformation” turned out to be absolutely true, including the discounting and later verification of the claim that the COVID virus originated with a lab leak in Wuhan, China.

If the government had regulatory measures in place controlling “disinformation,” we might still not know about Hunter’s laptop, or the 10% he set aside for “The Big Guy” from his influence-peddling, or how the COVID virus originated, or about a host of other issues.

Nowadays the guardians of acceptable opinion are flagging as “disinformation” any assertions that men are men and women are women and that one cannot turn into the other. How is that going to look once a bit of sanity returns to society?

Obama, the self-proclaimed near-absolutist on free speech should know all this and should have explained it to Goldberg. Instead, he once again revealed the authoritarian heart of the establishment Left.

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Tesla founder provides satellite-based internet for Ukraine, although connectivity hasn’t been interrupted by Russian invasion.

By World Israel News Staff

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk formally acknowledged that he had sent devices that would facilitate internet access via his company’s Starlink satellite-based internet to Ukraine in a tweet on Monday.

Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation for Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, posted an image on Twitter which appeared to show connective devices in the back of a military truck which would allow Ukranians to use Starlink.

“Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk,” Fedorov wrote.

Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/dZbaYqWYCf

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 28, 2022

“You are most welcome,” Musk replied to Fedorov.

Musk has remained mum on details as to how the devices entered Ukraine but acknowledged his surprise that Starlink’s parent company, SpaceX, could make an impact during the crisis.

“I wish I could say more,” Musk told SpaceNews. “But, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Strange that SpaceX can do this.”

Currently, internet access is still widely available throughout Ukraine, though Russia’s invasion of the eastern European nation has sparked fears that Moscow could destroy technological infrastructure and cut Ukraine off from the web if they chose to do so.

“We anticipated the disruption of our comms, but [it] didn’t happen,” Volodymyr Usov, former chairman of the Ukrainian State Space Agency and co-founder of Kyiv-based Kurs Orbita, told SpaceNews.

“Thanks to Elon for his support and good outreach,” he added. “Starlink can prove to be useful, especially outside big cities.”

Musk recently provided Starlink connectors to the South Pacific island of Tonga, which recently suffered a devastating volcanic explosion, triggering a tsunami that destroyed its internet infrastructure.

In May 2021, SpaceX launched two private passengers into space, becoming the first private company to do so. Until then, only the American, Chinese, and Russian governments had successfully launched human beings into space.

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