Israel's army censor to monitor social media

Israel's army has launched a new system to monitor and censor information on the Internet, its chief military censor told an Israeli newspaper Tuesday. Col. Sima Vaknin-Gil told the Haaretz daily that the upgraded system would monitor visual information and text on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs and others outlets. "I have no intention of going into people's personal diaries," but rather "things that are likely to harm the security of the state, and these incidents are few," Vaknin-Gil reportedly said. The report in Haaretz mentioned US blogger Richard Silverstein, who has published information under censorship or court-imposed gag orders on his blog, Tikun Olam. Israel's military has the authority to censor information it deems necessary for state security. Journalists have at times accused the government of using it for political reasons.