The social media platform-Facebook-recently deleted a post made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tech giant also suspended a chatbot linked to his account, explaining that the chat violated the company's privacy policy.
Facebook claims the message violated its privacy policy
In a statement released by Facebook via a spokesperson, they explained that their privacy policy is against content that shares or asks for individuals' medical information.
The spokesperson for Facebook also added that Facebook removed the post that violated the rule, and temporarily suspended the Messenger bot for breaking the rules.
The message that allegedly violated the privacy rules was read automatically by visitors that clicked on a piece of link-sharing coronavirus information on the Prime Minister's Facebook page.
The message claimed to come from Netanyahu himself and implored people to share the names and phone numbers of their friends or family members aged 60 or over that have not received the vaccine. The message concluded with the promise that the prime minister would talk to them himself.
Israeli prime minister's office released a statement
Netanyahu's Likud party released a statement in response to Facebook. The party said the message was formed to motivate Israelis over the age of 60 to get the vaccine and save their lives, and to prevent vaccine waste after the efforts of Minister Netanyahu to make sure the vaccine is available to the public.
The party also said in the statement that they are encouraging every Israeli to get vaccinated so that the country can open up the economy, and be among the countries to defeat the coronavirus.
Netanyahu, who is currently facing a fourth election-the second in two years, has made the results of Israel's vaccination program a prominent message in his re-election campaign.
The success of the Israeli vaccination campaign has been covered in controversy after the country refused to vaccinate Palestinian citizens under its jurisdiction.
According to United Nations experts, the Israeli's policy of immunizing only people with Israeli IDs is a form of discrimination.