Israel's Cyber Unit Targets Arabic Content: 99% of Takedown Requests for Arabic Posts

Israel's State Prosecutor's Office Cyber Unit submitted 186,160 requests to remove social media posts over approximately two and a half years, with nearly all of them, except for seven, being in Arabic. Social media platforms complied by removing 137,059 posts. These figures raise questions about the systematic targeting of Arabic content and the lack of direct judicial oversight on these removal processes.

The data, obtained by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel from the Ministry of Justice through a freedom of information request reported by the newspaper Haaretz, covers the period from May 2024 to September 2026. The removal rate was 73.6% of the total requests. Only five of the targeted posts were in Hebrew, and two were in English, with the rest in Arabic. The Ministry of Justice noted that some posts might contain multiple languages.

Ninety-nine percent of the removal requests were based on allegations of "incitement to terrorism," while only about 1% were for other unspecified reasons. Despite incitement to terrorism being a criminal offense, the Ministry of Justice revealed that the Cyber Unit did not refer any cases to the police during this period. Some content was forwarded to the unit by law enforcement agencies after criminal proceedings were deemed unfeasible, leading to requests for direct removal from platforms without separate judicial decisions on the legality of each post.

The Ministry stated that the unit examines post content without verifying the identity of the posters, meaning some content might have originated from outside Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The platforms targeted include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram.

The Association for Civil Rights warned that the near-exclusive focus on Arabic content raises concerns about a systematic infringement on freedom of expression in Arabic, contrasting with limited efforts to remove posts suspected of other violations. Previous data from October 2023 to May 2024 also showed Arabic content as the most targeted, but other reasons for removal, including incitement to racism, violence, privacy violations, and computer law offenses, constituted about 20% on some platforms, compared to 1% in the recent period.

Attorney Hagar Shachatar, who filed the freedom of information request, described the data as "disturbing," stating, "It appears that the Cyber Unit of the Ministry of Justice is not a unit that enforces the law and protects the public from the dangers of cyberspace, but rather a unit entirely dedicated to silencing the Arab community." She added that instead of combating economic or sexual crimes, the unit dedicates its resources to controlling discourse and restricting freedom of expression for the Arab community. Shachatar criticized the lack of action against content involving racism and violence against Arabs, including posts targeting Arab medical workers, pharmacists, and drivers, as well as explicit calls for attacks on Arabs in Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

She argued that the unit "operates in secret, and the public has no ability to monitor it and examine the categories it scrutinizes, the content it identifies, and the standards required for its removal," asserting that "crimes, violence, and racism online, in any language other than Arabic, go under the radar."

These figures emerge in the context of intensified measures by the Israeli prosecution since the start of the war in Gaza. Prosecutor General Amit Issar directed the police to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those publishing content that praises or supports Hamas or encourages "terrorist" acts. The prosecution also allowed police to open investigations into incitement suspicions without prior approval and encouraged investigators to seek extensions of detention for suspects. This period saw a broad political crackdown, including investigations and arrests of Arab citizens based on social media posts, sometimes on incorrect suspicions. Notably, 96% of incitement cases opened by the police since Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir took office were against Arabs, compared to 4% against Jews.