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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/internet-fuels-palestinian-drive-expression-131730240.html
Palestinian Social Media Face PA, Hamas Surveillance
(AFP) Shatha Yaish - The emerging role of social media in Palestinian society has not gone unnoticed by Gaza's Hamas rulers or by the PA in the West Bank. Jillian York, director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a U.S.-based Internet rights watchdog, says Palestinian social media face both surveillance and self-censorship. In 2010, Walid Hassayen from the West Bank town of Kalkilya was arrested on charges of blasphemy and sentenced to three years after he allegedly poked fun at the Koran on his Facebook page. Radio journalist George Cannawati criticized the government-run health authority in a posting on Facebook and was sued by the Bethlehem governor Abdel Fatah Hamayel for libel, slander and defamation. In Gaza, users face an array of restrictions, including blocked pages. In April 2010, Assad al-Saftawi, 22, was arrested by Gaza's Hamas rulers and charged with "slander" and "promoting lies inciting against the government" after he criticized them in a Facebook posting picked up by Al-Ayyam newspaper.