Muhammad Traira, a 17-year-old Palestinian, received inciting messages on his Facebook page calling for jihad against Jews, until he entered Kiryat Arba, entered the room of 13-year-old Hillel Ariel, and stabbed her to death. He previously wrote on his Facebook page: "Death is a right and I demand that right." The complaints filed with Facebook management, such as the calls to download the posts praising the killer, were, as always, ignored. 

Social networks are completely immune from liability for content uploaded by users. They can remove posts that they do not agree with, without being held responsible for the content. As in tyrannical regimes, the networks have created an internal mechanism for handling content that “does not conform to community rules,” and they deliver posts at their sole discretion. The broad immunity granted to them by the law, leads to enforcement that is often interpreted as selective. Dozens of complaints were received from journalists and right-wing activists who were blocked from using Facebook claiming that their publication did not comply with community rules, but at the same time there seemed to be someone who decided somewhere in Ireland that it was okay to approve posts and sermons inciting the murder of Jews.

The interpretation given by Facebook to the limits of freedom of expression has a clear impact on the waves of knives and acts of trampling. Evidence of the incitement content on social networks that appear in the investigation materials as a clear motive for the murders will testify to this. The evidence proves that the ideological inspiration was drawn from the killers from posts of extremist religious leaders, and the knowledge to carry out the killings was received more than once from videos of terrorist organizations. The networks, in the complete distortion of the legislature's intent, have become the defender of the freedom of expression of murderous threats, and of all those who despise what Western democracies symbolize. 

For years, social networks have refrained from regulating or cooperating with countries simply because they did not want to share with anyone the immense power of navigating the boundaries of global discourse. It is not only illogical, it is also contrary to other American law prohibiting the provision of terrorist assistance of any kind. 

What did not make thousands of complaints, is now changing from an unexpected place. Recently, President Trump in a statement demanded that senior government officials find ways to bring about a change in the law, and to reduce the far-reaching immunity granted to social media giants. In addition, more than 400 large companies in the United States, which claimed that Facebook does not remove hate and racist content from the network, decided to stop advertising in it. And here is the place to wonder: Where are the Israeli companies? Why is their voice not heard during years of incitement? On a social network that will prevent the next murder? How did not a significant public protest arise in Israel? The

price of content monitoring effectively is high and complex to implement, and will require huge resources. Therefore, the statements of Facebook management must be taken with a limited guarantee, because it is on the way to voluntary change. The US administration must quickly promote legislation that will remove immunity, along with exerting public and economic pressure from advertisers. It is time to say clearly - the values ​​of freedom of expression do not exceed the value of human life. 

Adv. Nitzana Darshan-Leitner heads the Shurat HaDin organization, which fights in the legal arena for the State of Israel