Israel takes on Facebook in battle against incitement

JERUSALEM — Nine months ago, Dareen Tatour posted a poem to Facebook about her frustration over spiking violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Days later, Israeli police banged on her door in the middle of the night and arrested her, accusing her of inciting violence on the social network.

Hoping to further clamp down on what it sees as the driving force behind a 10-month spate of Palestinian attacks, Israel is now preparing a law that aims to rein in content on social media, including Facebook, a platform it says plays a central role in inspiring attackers.

Voicing your opinion is the only medium for an individual in a democracy, Tatour, 34, said by phone from the apartment outside Tel Aviv where she was confined to house arrest after spending three months in jail.

The new social media law, called the Facebook Law, would enable courts to order social networks to remove posts in cases in which the user cannot be found or is not under Israel’s jurisdiction.