Al Mayadeen English temporarily banned on X for 12 hours
X, formerly known as Twitter, has temporarily suspended Al Mayadeen English's account for 12 hours without providing any explanation. This marks the second time we have been targeted by social media giants since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Al Mayadeen English's account on X was slapped with a temporary ban this Saturday for 12 hours. The platform first took this action without providing any explanation, citing a violation of X's rules as the reason for locking the account.
After sending an appeal, we were notified by X that the temporary ban related to an earlier piece of breaking news sent over the platform, which reads the following:
It's worth noting that our coverage adheres to journalistic standards and does not feature any graphic content that could have violated guidelines.
This suspension marks the second instance of Al Mayadeen English being banned amid its coverage of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, throughout which we have been committed to exposing Israeli crimes and broadcasting the truth as it is.
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This also comes after X's owner Elon Musk visited "Israel". During his visit, Israeli Occupation Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi stated on November 27 that he has reached a preliminary agreement with Musk to deploy Starlink satellite communication services in the Gaza Strip, but is restricted to Israeli approval.
Earlier, in a new escalation for online censorship, Musk also announced that slogans, chants, and statements calling for "decolonization" are "unacceptable to any reasonable person" and violate the "terms of service" of X and "will result in suspension."
Israeli cabinet approves decision to shut down Al Mayadeen Network
Earlier last month, in an attempt to silence Al Mayadeen's efforts to expose Israeli crimes, the Israeli war cabinet approved regulations that would allow the occupation government to ban and shut down Al Mayadeen Media Network, which comprises a foreign channel as per the emergency regulations descriptions and broadcasts in "Israel" in three languages: Arabic, English, and Spanish.
According to the decision, Al Mayadeen was said to constitute a "harm" to "national security."
Read next: 'Israel' deliberately kills Al Mayadeen's crew in South Lebanon
The occupation's war cabinet issued an order to block Al Mayadeen's online operations in occupied Palestine, and an order to seize its broadcasting equipment will be issued later today.
Among the decisions taken is issuing an order addressing all Internet service providers to prevent all users of the services from accessing the websites "that were found, after examination by the Ministry of Information, to be Internet sites through which Al Mayadeen channel broadcasts":
Meta temporarily suspends Al Mayadeen English on Instagram
This is not the first time Al Mayadeen English has been targeted. In October, a few days after the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Al Mayadeen English account was shortly suspended on Instagram, one of Meta's social media platforms, on October 9.
The account was later restored after filing an appeal, however, no reason was provided for the cause of the block and no prior notice was given either.
Read next: Al Mayadeen affirms its commitment to Palestine despite Israeli ban
Earlier in September, Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Musk to practice more censorship on the billionaire's social media platform X under the guise of "antisemitism" during a face-to-face meeting in California on September 19.
The meeting initially promoted by the Israeli Prime Minister as a discussion on technology and artificial intelligence, promptly shifted its focus toward increased censorship under the pretext of "combating antisemitism".