Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak raised a proposal on Friday to shutter all social media platforms in the country for three days before the national election on Oct. 27.
The former Labor Party leader raised concerns over the potential spread of fabricated footage using AI tools, speaking in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster.
One option to solve this problem is “to appeal to these companies [social media firms] and demand on behalf of the State of Israel to close these channels in the three last days [before the election],” Barak said in Hebrew.
Barak was prime minister from 1999 to 2001, and minister of defense from 2007 to 2013, including in a Netanyahu government from 2009 to 2013.
Last year, he repeated his call for a civil insurrection to topple the Netanyahu government.
“We need to get to a civil insurrection,” Barak said on May 3, 2025, during an appearance on “Moriah & Berko,” a Channel 13 news show co-hosted by Moriah Ashraf and Eyal Berkovic.
Asked to explain what that meant, he said he meant hundreds of thousands taking to the streets guided by political, academic, high-tech and market leaders, among others.
When Ashraf asked what the limits of the insurrection should be, Barak said, “The limits are the shutdown of the country until the government falls.”
Speaking at an anti-government protest rally in Tel Aviv on July 27, 2024, Barak urged the thousands present to engage in “nonviolent civil noncompliance.”
Israeli prosecutors at the time mulled whether to prosecute Barak on charges of incitement and sedition.
