Israel’s “Cyber Unit” and Extra-legal Content Take-downs
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2021
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Odds are, you probably haven’t heard of the Israeli government’s “Cyber Unit,” but it’s worth paying attention to whether or not you live in Israel and the Palestinian territories. It’s an entity that, among other things, reaches out to major online platforms like Facebook and Twitter with requests that the platforms remove content. It’s one of a number of such agencies around the globe, which are known as Internet Referral Units. Earlier in April, the Israeli Supreme Court gave a green light to the unit’s activities, rejecting a legal challenge that charged the unit with infringing on constitutional rights.
This week on Arbiters of Truth, the Lawfare Podcast’s miniseries on our online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic talked to Fady Khoury and Rabea Eghbariah, who were part of the legal team that challenged the Cyber Unit’s work on behalf of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab and Minority Rights in Israel. Why do they—and many other human rights activists–find Internet Referral Units so troubling, and why do governments like the units so much? Why did the Israeli Supreme Court disagree with Fady and Rabea’s challenge to the unit’s activities? And what does the Court’s decision say about the developing relationship between countries’ legal systems and platform content moderation systems?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | And I think this is dangerous because the court is legitimizing and legalizing |
| 0:39.0 | an informal cooperation between state actors and private intermediaries |
| 0:45.0 | at the expense of users at the expense of transparency. |
| 0:50.0 | I'm Quintet Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, April 29, 2021. |
| 0:58.0 | Today we're bringing you another episode of Arbiter's of Truth, |
| 1:02.0 | the LawFair podcast's mini-series on our online information ecosystem. |
| 1:06.0 | Odds are, you probably haven't heard of the Israeli government cyber-unit, |
| 1:11.0 | but it's worth paying attention to whether or not you live in Israel |
| 1:15.0 | in the Palestinian territories. |
| 1:17.0 | It's an entity that, among other things, reaches out to major online platforms |
| 1:22.0 | like Facebook and Twitter with requests that the platforms remove content. |
| 1:26.0 | And it's one of a number of such agencies around the globe, |
| 1:30.0 | which are known as Internet Referral Units. |
| 1:33.0 | Earlier in April, the Israeli Supreme Court gave a green light to the unit's activities, |
| 1:38.0 | rejecting a legal challenge that charged the unit with infringing on constitutional rights. |
| 1:44.0 | This week on the show, Evelyn Duek and I talked to Fadi Corey and Rabia Eggboria, |
... |
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