Internet & Online Safety - Israel

The 2017 'Powers to Prevent the Commission of Offenses by Means of an Internet Website Law' lets district-court judges, on police/State Attorney request, order ISPs to block or remove sites used for terrorism, child pornography, human trafficking, advertising prostitution, illegal gambling and drug offenses. This is the main operative content-restriction mechanism.

Israel lacks a horizontal online-safety / content-moderation statute imposing systemic platform duties of care. A Ministry of Communications advisory committee has recommended making platforms legally responsible for illegal and harmful content, but these are recommendations, not enacted law.

A 'Facebook bill' giving preliminary approval lets a judge order platforms (e.g. Facebook, TikTok) to remove posts where law enforcement believes a criminal offense was committed via the publication. Critics, including legal researchers, called it broader and more intrusive than equivalents in other democracies, citing free-speech risks.

Amendment 13 to the Protection of Privacy Law (adopted Aug 2024, in force 14 Aug 2025) aligns Israel closer to the GDPR, with stronger enforcement, mandatory privacy protection officers, data-broker rules and a broadened definition of sensitive data — the main binding rulebook for how platforms handle user data.

Israel has no enacted mandatory age-verification law for adult content; lawmakers earlier backed away from a compulsory online porn filter. Minor protection online is handled via the 2017 blocking law (CSAM, exploitation) and child-protection bodies rather than a dedicated age-assurance mandate; a Knesset research brief reviewed such mechanisms.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi's wider media-overhaul bill passed a first reading; the Attorney General warned of 'real concern of severe harm to freedom of expression and freedom of the press,' reflecting ongoing tension between regulation and speech in Israel's online/media space.