Germany disciplines diplomats who ‘liked’ anti-Israel tweets

BERLIN — Germany’s Foreign Ministry says it has instituted new social media guidelines and disciplined personnel after anti-Israel tweets were “liked” by the official Twitter account of the German mission to the Palestinian territories.

The Foreign Ministry says today that 10 people had access to the @GerRepRamallah account and it wasn’t clear who clicked the “likes.” The ministry says the account wasn’t secured against unauthorized users.

It says the head of Germany’s office in Ramallah, Christian Clages, and others were disciplined. The social media guidance sent to all diplomatic posts clarifies “that even ‘likes’ are understood as expressions of opinion of the German government” and now require the approval of two people.

The ministry says it “publicly made it clear the contents of the tweets concerned are unacceptable, contradict the attitude of the German government, and are not tolerated.”

— AP

We have been made aware that a number of anti-Semitic messages were liked via this account. We repudiate such messages in the strongest terms. We sincerely apologize & will ensure that this misconduct cannot be repeated in the future.

➡️read our full message: pic.twitter.com/s9vrgaX6oq

— Germany in Ramallah (@GerRepRamallah) July 30, 2019