The Ministerial Committee approved the bill by MKs Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev, which prohibits sending advertisements.
According to the bill, sending text messages containing advertising information, news content or gossip will be prohibited - without the recipient's express permission. In addition, an advertiser will be prohibited from setting up an automatic dialing system that aims to make the recipient dial back the same number, so that the recipient will hear the advertisement or message when they call back the same number.
The initiator of the law, Uri Maklev, said upon the approval of the law by the ministerial committee: "The phenomenon of harassment by advertisers is unbearable, calling people or sending messages dozens of times over and over again during the day and at night, and constitutes serious harassment and interference. I hope that the bill will put an end to this rotten phenomenon.".
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The explanatory notes to the law state that the provisions in the law currently refer to commercial advertising and not to news messages or gossip content, and therefore it is proposed to prohibit this type of harassment as well.
Another phenomenon intended to circumvent the existing law, the bill states, is cases in which the advertiser dials the recipient using an automatic dialing system and disconnects the call, in order to cause the recipient to dial back to the same number, and the advertiser will profit from the recipient's calling back to the same number.
It should be noted that this bill comes in light of repeated requests from the general public to the Knesset Office. Therefore, it is proposed to amend Section 30A of the law so that news or gossip content will also be defined as advertising, to which the prohibitions set forth in the section will apply.
