Since late 2015, the Israeli government has launched an intensive online surveillance and arrest campaign against young Palestinians because of what they write on social media. Over 800 Palestinians were arrested, so far, because of their Facebook posts. These arbitrary arrests are the result of an algorithm-based predictive policing system developed by the Israeli military intelligence, which monitors thousands upon thousands of Palestinian social media accounts and analyzes their content to make a prediction of who could commit an attack. What is worrisome here, is the real potential of exporting such system to other countries, particularly those concerned with terrorism and radicalization online. The EU has already expressed its interest in adopting this predictive policing technology to combat online incitement in the EU zone.
The talk will go in-depth of what we know so far about how this Israeli predictive policing works and will open the discussion on the dangers and risks of importing such technologies on digital rights in Europe.
Speakerin: Marwa Fatafta