Digital Rights Weekly Update: 28 March - 3 April

Meta profits as ads promote illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank

Al Jazeera

Facebook has platformed more than 100 paid advertisements promoting illegal settlements and far-right settler activity in the occupied West Bank, an Al Jazeera investigation has found, raising concerns that the social media giant is profiting from content that may violate international law. Among the advertisements identified were also calls for the demolition of Palestinian homes, schools, and playgrounds, as well as fundraising appeals for Israeli military units operating in Gaza. 

Israel’s AI use in Gaza normalizes civilian killings, obscures blame, exposes Big Tech complicity: Expert

AA

Israel’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip – aided by tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon – is fueling concerns over the normalization of mass civilian casualties and raising serious questions about the complicity of these firms in potential war crimes, according to a leading AI expert. Multiple reports have confirmed that Israel has deployed AI models such as Lavender, Gospel, and Where’s Daddy? to conduct mass surveillance, identify targets, and direct strikes against tens of thousands of individuals in Gaza – often in their own homes – all with minimal human oversight.

Google is Acquiring Tech Firm Founded by Ex-Israeli Intelligence Officers for Record $32 Billion

Drop Site

In mid-March, Google announced that it was paying the staggering sum of $32 billion for the acquisition of the Israeli cloud-computing security company Wiz. The acquisition, pending regulatory approval, will be the largest ever of an Israeli firm. “Organizations of all sizes—from start-ups and large enterprises to governments and public sector organizations—can use Wiz to protect everything they build and run in the cloud,” Google said in a statement announcing the acquisition. The statement added that Wiz would join Google Cloud, but that the Tel Aviv-based company’s security services would still be available across other cloud platforms used by major firms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud.

A militant Zionist group threatens activists online with a ‘deport list’

The Washington Post

Last fall, Betar was banned from Meta’s platforms after it made veiled death threats to pro-Palestinian lawmakers and college students. Now the group’s social media presence is unrestrained as it aligns itself with the Trump administration’s enforcement of executive orders calling for the expulsion of foreign nationals who engage in antisemitism or support terrorism. Betar’s rising profile shows how Trump’s policies and rhetoric have emboldened a new crop of uncompromising Zionist groups that use social media to target individuals they view as antisemitic or sympathetic to Hamas — including some Jews.