Instagram takes down Democracy Now's Gaza posts

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
10 Jul 2024 11:09
1 Shares

Instagram issues a takedown notice to Democracy Now for sharing "symbols, praise, or support of people and organizations we define as dangerous."

Listen

The Instagram app icon is seen on a smartphone, Tuesday, February 28, 2023, in Marple Township, PA (AP)

Instagram removed several interviews about the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip that were posted by Democracy Now, a long-running left-leaning independent media outlet, the Semafor news website reported.

On Tuesday, Democracy Now published a clip of an interview between host Amy Goodman and journalist Jeremy Scahill, where they discussed Scahill’s recent interviews with Hamas members.

In the clip, Scahill reported on whether Hamas anticipated "Israel's" response to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023.

Shortly after the clip was posted, Instagram removed the videos, issuing a takedown notice to Democracy Now for sharing "symbols, praise, or support of people and organizations we define as dangerous."

One person familiar with the notice claimed that the posts violated "the community guidelines on dangerous individuals and organizations."

According to the Semafor news website, while the clips had a pro-Palestinian perspective, they were not unique in their critical stance toward "Israel", and it was unclear why Instagram singled them out.

Later on Tuesday, Democracy Now uploaded a shorter version of the interview with Scahill on Instagram.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Meta, Instagram's parent company, claimed the videos had been removed in error and had been restored.

Meta has long been accused of cracking down on pro-Palestinian content exposing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

Back in December, Meta's independent oversight board rebuked the social media giant for removing posts depicting human suffering in Gaza.

The board overturned two decisions, including the removal of an Instagram video exposing the aftermath of an Israeli strike near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The video depicted injured or killed Palestinians, including children.

Al Mayadeen English's account on Instagram was shortly suspended on October 9 and 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.

@Instagram temporarily suspended @AlMayadenEnglish account on #Instagram to censor its reporting on what is happening in #Palestine. The account was restored after filing an appeal.

Our account was suspended with no prior notice, nor were we informed of the true reason for the… pic.twitter.com/bFgBWpmy51
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 9, 2023

Meta fires engineer for fixing bug that bans Palestine content

The company has fired an engineer for trying to fix a bug causing the blocking of Instagram posts about Palestine, and the engineer has accused Meta of bias in its handling of content related to the war on Gaza.

Palestinian-American engineer Ferras Hamad, who had been employed at Meta since 2021, filed a lawsuit in a California state court for discrimination and wrongful termination, accusing the company of bias against Palestinians.

He said the company even deleted internal employee communications mentioning the deaths of their relatives in Gaza and conducted investigations into their use of the Palestinian flag emoji.

The lawsuit further states that no similar investigations have been launched before for employees posting Israeli or Ukrainian flag emojis in similar contexts.

Hamad notes that his dismissal was due to an incident in December regarding an emergency procedure to troubleshoot severe problems with the platforms, known within Meta as a SEV or "site event".

According to the complaints in the lawsuit, Hamad noticed irregularities in the SEV policies related to restricting content posted by Palestinian Instagram accounts, such as posts being prevented from appearing in searches and feeds.