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State Comptroller Mattaniho Engelman published on Tuesday 14/7/20, the 2020 local government audit report

Matanyahu Engelman, State Comptroller and Ombudsman:
"One of our goals is for the audit to be relevant and effective for the authorities and for the recipients of services from the local authorities. The local authority has an influence on each and every one of us and naturally each person is first and foremost interested in what happens on the doorstep of their home, which is why we worked to make the reports accessible.

The municipality's use of social media - following inquiries from residents

In the audit that began following an appeal by citizens to the Public Complaints Commission at the State Comptroller's Office, it was found that some local authorities did not conduct an orderly and planned procedure, including the preparation of procedures and work plans, regarding the purposes of using social networks and how to use them in an optimal and efficient way.

There is no planning and no clear goal

In an inspection conducted in several local authorities, no documentation was found that an orderly and planned procedure was conducted regarding the purposes of using social networks and how to use them in an optimal way in order to prevent harm to the public's rights. There is no written procedure and work plan guiding the speakers or the operators of the social networks for the purposes of the Authority and work procedures regarding the handling of the social network.

Extensive use of Facebook

As of 2018, the percentage of Facebook users in Israel was the highest in relation to the average number of users worldwide and stood at 84%. The local authorities and their elected officials also make extensive use of online social networks (mainly Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter) to convey messages and messages to the public and public relations for the Authority. 94% of them have an account on at least one of the platforms.

Inspection by the auditor at Haifa Municipality  

In an inspection conducted by the Haifa municipality, it was found that in July 2019 a post was promoted advertising a performance by a certain band at a cost of NIS 20 per ticket. The criteria for targeting the ad also included age, 16 to 43. When we asked why this criterion was chosen, it was made clear to the representatives of the State Comptroller's Office that This is a band that appeals to a relatively young audience, and they requested that the advertising be directed to the relevant audience, and that the targeted advertising be done in addition to publishing the ad to the general public on the authority's network website.

Does the municipality discriminate on the basis of age?

The use of the age criterion to determine the target population for the target may raise a claim of discrimination in advertising against older or younger audiences, for whom the advertising may also be relevant.

Haifa Municipality used the information of those who registered forparental administration" For the purpose of targeting ads on Facebook intended for the parent audience. In another case, the municipality created an audience that was interested in the invent campaign - an urban entrepreneurship space, and asked to target them and lookalikes with ads in the field.

Consider how personal information is used

In the described cases, people who came to the authority's event agreed to provide their details for the purpose of receiving future ads on a certain topic. Even if the said agreement actually allows the local authorities to transfer the information they have to the companies that operate the social networks, then it is a transfer of information about the public, which is in the hands of the public authority, to private entities as mentioned, who are entitled according to their terms of use to collect, process and use this information for their own needs. It is therefore recommended that the authorities - the Authority for the Protection of Privacy and the Advisory and Legislation Department - give their opinion on the issue and its consequences.

Inappropriate responses

As part of the audit, the audit team examined whether inappropriate responses against the authorities or their heads are published on the pages of the inspected authorities or on the pages of their heads - including insults, insults, curses, and incitement, which do not constitute legitimate criticism or freedom of political expression. We will also examine whether the reviewed authorities block users, delete or hide comments.

Below are the test findings

From the State Comptroller's 2020 report
From the State Comptroller's 2020 report

Blocking users

It should be noted that the Haifa Municipality found partial documentation for five cases from 2016 in which users were blocked from the Authority's website. It was also found that in all the examined authorities there are cases of comments being deleted or hidden.

There is no record of the reason for the block

In the inspection at the Haifa municipality, as in other authorities, no documentation was found regarding the reason for blocking the users.

The municipality does not respond

In an audit of the inspected authorities, it was found that on the Haifa municipality's Facebook page, there is an option to upload guest posts, but the municipality does not address or respond to them - even in cases that deserve its attention. (Regarding submitting public inquiries through social networks and providing a response to them, see reference in the chapter "Handling public inquiries and complaints through social networks").

Haifa Municipality's response: 

The municipal page is managed by the new media department and the municipal spokeswoman. Some of the employees of the municipal hotline are defined on the municipal page as editors and have privileges to answer private messages and inquiries received on the page. The employees at the municipal hotline monitor from Facebook inquiries that they believe require urgent attention. The employees in the public inquiries department at the municipality respond to posts concerning non-urgent issues, and also to responses to posts by the municipality (if a response is required).
Answers, as mentioned, are usually answered privately, so as not to create another conversation unrelated to the post.
Every request or complaint is copied to the complaint management system at the municipal call center for public inquiries and saved there.

Below are examples of posts that were written on the page of the Haifa municipality and were not answered publicly by it:

Unanswered complaints - examples
Examples of complaints that were not answered by the Haifa municipality

contact: At watsapBy email

Baruch Liebman
Baruch Liebman
He wrote, and they will be investigated in Hai Pa and on the community television - "Haifa Time". Volunteer at "The New Shomer" and "Bhai Bar"

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תגובה 1

  1. The municipalities are decommissioning the development of their websites in favor of providing details about us to Zuckerberg & Co.
    Huge sums are paid to foreign companies that do not pay taxes in the country for discriminatory, shallow advertising, often also poor for the mayor and his glory.
    We simply need a law prohibiting the spending of local authorities' money on websites that are not owned by them but with the approval of the Ministry of the Interior.. so simple. Why finance foreign websites? And hundreds of thousands have also dared Facebook and want information from the municipalities' websites and not from social networks.

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