Facebook has suspended a chatbot on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official page after it breached hate speech policy by posting a message warning against Arabs who “want to destroy us all”.
Facebook said on Thursday it had suspended the automated chat function on the page, which is run by Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, for 24 hours.
“After careful review of the Likud campaign’s bot activities, we found a violation of our hate speech policy,” Facebook said in a statement.
"We also found that the bot was misusing the platform in the time period allowed to contact people. As a result, we temporarily suspended the bot for 24 hours. Should there be any additional violations, we will continue to take appropriate action," the statement added.
According to AFP, Netanyahu has long faced accusations from critics that he has demonised Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens with his political rhetoric.
Last week, Netanyahu pushed for last-minute legislation that would allow party officials to bring cameras into polling stations.
Critics said it was a clear attempt to intimidate Israel’s Arab population into not voting
