Facebook, Palestinian Content and Tawakkol Karman

Lately, Facebook has become ferocious towards the Palestinian content. No doubt about that. It is noticed by all those concerned with the Palestinian cause on the internet. Many cases of blocking, bans, and restrictions against activists in the political field and defenders of the Palestinian people who are hostile to "Israel" and Zionism. This matter started gradually and escalated in the past few months until it reached an alarming extent in its cruelty. Many accounts have been warned and suspended for long periods of time or even completely deleted (including the account of Dr. Asaad Abu Khalil). Writing on a political issue related to Palestine, revolution or resistance is now something that requires a lot of “skill” and maneuvering in order to avoid banning or punishment by Facebook! Activists are resorting to certain "codes" in writing in order to circumvent facebook's excessively activated algorithms to confront anyone who violates the "standards" and publishes "inappropriate" content! Of course, all of this is taking place under the banner of combating racism and hate speech.

Does Tawakkol Karman have anything to do with it?

The story dates back to May 2020, when the Facebook administration announced the appointment of a “Facebook oversight board” whose mission is to “promote freedom of expression by making principled, independent decisions about content, and making recommendations to Facebook regarding content policies” according to the official announcement. Although Facebook is the one who chose and appointed the council members and paid their huge salaries (press reports talked about a quarter of a million dollars annually to the member in exchange for 15 working hours per week), it wants us to believe that this council is completely independent and that its decisions are binding to facebook who is committed to implementing them immediately! The “esteemed” board consists of twenty people with distinguished experiences from different countries of the world (five of them from the United States, five from Asia, three from Europe, three from Africa, two from Latin America, one Australian, and one from “Israel”). One Arab member of the council was chosen: the Yemeni Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman.

Can we blame Tawakkol Karman for the facebook policy of repression towards Palestinian content? Or is that a matter beyond her capabilities? The answer is yes and no! Yes, because as long as she accepts to be a leading member of a board whose job is to supervise the content policy of Facebook, and determine what is appropriate to be said and written and what is not, then she is responsible, or at least co-responsible, for the decisions and policies taken by this board. And if Facebook is imposing bans and restrictions, it means that decisions are taken contrary to her opinion and position, and she must object and struggle for her opinion and not be a mere false witness serving as a cover-up tool. And let's not forget that she is the only Arabic-speaking member of the supervisory board, and naturally, she is expected to be the most informed and involved in facebook's decisions regarding the Palestinian issue. And from this angle, she can not be forgiven. For example, she must make it clear to the Facebook administration (if they really do not know!) that denouncing and condemning Zionism is neither racism nor a hate crime. But on the other side, we know that Facebook’s content policy is determined at the highest levels in Facebook and there is no way Tawakkol Karman, or any other “external” person, could have any influence in that matter, and therefore she is not a real decision-maker regarding what Facebook decides. In that sense, she’s “innocent” and cannot be held responsible for implementing the Israeli agenda, which she cannot change even if she wants to, because she’s just a public-relations tool, nothing more.

In both cases, she is to blame, whether she is a real contributor to Facebook's decisions and policies or a helpless false witness. 

Tawakkol Karman has gone a long way so far in her remarkable and distinguished life as an Arab girl from Yemen, who moved from the arenas of the “youth revolution” in 2011 against the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh... to the world of "Nobel Prize", fame, stardom, and international organizations... to positioning herself in the folds of the Turkish –Qatari – Muslim Brotherhood alliance in the region... up to her new role as a policewoman in the world of Facebook, which is more repressive and tyrannical than many old dictatorships.