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Facebook Helps Israel Blacklist Air Travellers

Posted by timothy on from the but-very-gently dept.

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "According to a report by the Associated Press, protesters have been stopped in their tracks after Facebook aided Israel in cracking down on the group of activists from the UK, France, and Belgium who planned their event using the popular social networking site. Facebook allowed government agents to track the activists activities and then create a black-list of people who participated in the planning of the protests. The black-listed group was then forwarded to airlines with instructions to prevent the activists from boarding air flights to Israel. Over 200 activists were prevented from flying after being added to the airlines terrorism watch list, according the the AP report. Was Julian Assange correct, when he warned that Facebook was a giant, 'appalling spy machine'?"

5 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Its been done before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facebook is in routine use by various "authorities " to profile people. So why not the Israelis?

    And in other news. Bears shit in woods.

  2. Oh, big wow. by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least they didn't just let the protesters get there and gun them down. This is surprisingly restrained behaviour from the Israeli government.

  3. "Facebook aided"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a difference between facebook actively aiding Israel officials, and those officials viewing the members of a facebook group. Maybe not planning activities in a publicly-viewable setting would have helped these people?

    Police, officials, whatever, viewing publicly-accessible information posted on social media sites is a Good Thing, occasionally. If you don't _want_ it viewed, don't post it publicly [and please note, I don't mean, don't post it online. Some medium of privacy should be expected, and the summary and my [brief] skim of TFA didn't say this was privacy violation in any way].

  4. Doesn't say that Facebook helped Israel directly. by Kifoth · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The closest it comes to describing what happened is: Israel had tracked the activists on social media sites, compiled a blacklist of more than 300 names and asked airlines to keep those on the list off flights to Israel. and "These people announced on their Internet sites that they planned to come here and cause

    disruptions, and told their friends."

    Sounds like they bragged in public, using their own names. And nothing more.

    It's shit like this, Slashdot...

  5. Re:Facebook - Owned By A Jew. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe you should look into the work of some Jews like Noam Chomsky, in case you think being a Jew inherently makes you a supporter of Israels policies.

    Equating being a Jew with being pro Israel comes off as racist.