The cybercrime prevention prosecution office which reports to the Palestinian Authority (PA) attorney-general has announced its intent to contact Facebook in order to block the pages of all websites that were banned by a court in Ramallah.
The PA magistrate court in Ramallah recently sanctioned a request filed by the prosecution office asking for blocking 59 Palestinian and Arab websites blogs and Facebook pages that oppose the PA and president Mahmoud Abbas.
Nisreen Zeina chief cybercrime prevention prosecutor told a local news agency that Facebook activists and some institutions which were affected by the censorship decision have the right to officially object to the step adding that her office was doing its job in order to preserve the rights of everyone.
Zeina claimed that the court decision to block websites and pages would be effective for six months and if it was not renewed all sites and pages would be online again noting that the decision would be followed by legal procedures.
Although the cybercrime law was devised by Abbas in 2017 and is considered unconstitutional the chief cybercrime prosecutor said that the decision was taken according to the cybercrime law emphasizing that freedoms of opinions and expression must be governed by clear controls and restrictions in order not to harm the society.
