From the Alien and Sedition Acts to various Red Scares, American history is littered with panicked attempts to curtail the First Amendment to defend the status quo. Israeli multi-billionaire Shlomo Kramer is the latest to make the case — arguing that the country must control its citizens’ speech in order to survive, an astonishingly bold assertion from someone who isn’t even a US citizen.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Kramer argued that free speech protections are leading the US down the wrong path.
“You’re seeing the polarization in countries that allow for the First Amendment and protect it, which is great — and I know it’s difficult to hear, but it’s time to limit the First Amendment in order to protect it,” he told the CNBC hosts. “And quickly before it’s too late.”
Kramer, whose perspective is forged by his time in the Israel Defense Forces’ counterintelligence group Israeli Unit 8200 — which has been called a “secret startup machine” for its track record of producing tech founders — has some hefty credentials in the business world. He cofounded his first major security company, Check Point Software Technologies, along with alumni from Unit 8200, and later built and sold web security firm Imperva for $3.6 billion. Now CEO of cloud security company Cato Networks, a firm partnered with major US corporations like Amazon Web Services and RingCentral, Kramer is wading into American politics with some radical proposals.
Asked to clarify exactly what he meant about limiting the First Amendment, Kramer told CNBC that the government must take control of social media to avoid negative polarization — in other words, online debate.
“I mean that we need to control the platforms, all the social platforms,” he explained. “We need to stack, rank the authenticity of every person that expresses themselves online and take control over what they are saying, based on that ranking.”
“The government?” CNBC host Sara Eisen asked.
“The government should, yeah,” Kramer confirmed. “They should do that. And we need to educate people against lies.”
It’s hard to separate the billionaire’s outlook from the secular nationalism which he advocates for in his own country — a perspective that prioritizes state security and market-driven solutions over concerns like civil liberties.
For example, 2024 polling by the Pew Research Center found that at least half of all Israeli adults surveyed were in favor of social media censorship, particularly when it comes to content about the country’s controversial war in Gaza. More recent analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that Israeli journalists face escalating censorship, harassment, and pressure to self-censor as a decade-long propaganda campaign by Netanyahu’s government reaches a fever pitch.
There’s another messy implication: such a vast censorship campaign would require an extensive cybersecurity apparatus — which the tech billionaire just so happens to be in the business of supplying.
“You need to put adjustments that are perhaps not popular, but necessary,” Kramer said. “This is an urgent need, by the government, to do that. And until then, enterprises are buying — by themselves — more and more cybersecurity solutions… but they are looking for ways to drive more efficient consumption.”
“And I assume you have some of those ways, obviously,” CNBC host David Faber replied.
“So, that drives the next generation of companies, such as Wiz, Crowdstrike, the Cato Networks,” Kramer continued, referencing his own security firm. “Networks that are platforms, and are able to deliver this extended need for security in affordable ways for enterprises.”
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