Meta temporarily suspends Al Mayadeen English on Instagram
3 Min Read
It is not the first time that Meta has taken such measures as they have also previously banned and blocked pro-Palestine accounts.
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Meta blocks Al Mayadeen English on Instagram, restored after appeal
The Al Mayadeen English account was shortly suspended on Instagram, one of Meta's social media platforms, on Monday. 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.
It is worth noting that our coverage follows journalistic standards and displays no graphic content that could have violated guidelines. It is also not the first time that Meta has taken such measures, as they have also previously banned and blocked Pro-Palestine accounts.
@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.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 9, 2023
Our account was suspended with no prior notice, nor were we informed of the true reason for the… pic.twitter.com/bFgBWpmy51
Meta suspends other outlets
Al Mayadeen English was not the only news network or outlet that was hit with a block or suspension by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. Global outlet Red Stream was also suspended on Instagram and has not restored its account yet.
Meanwhile, the news website, Mondoweiss, which provides news and analyses for people taking action for Palestine as defined on its Twitter profile, confirmed that its TikTok account was "permanently banned". The reason it provided was the mere coverage of the events in Palestine. Mondoweiss slammed Meta's move as "an outrageous attack on press freedom," demanding that its account be reinstated.
Today, our #TikTok account was "permanently banned" during our ongoing coverage of the events in Palestine. Mondoweiss is a news outlet with professional journalists. This is an outrageous attack on press freedom.@TikTokSupport, we demand that our account be reinstated. pic.twitter.com/CKTSc2qlaw
— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) October 9, 2023
That said, Meta admitted to blocking and censoring Palestinian content last year.
Instagram suspended our account in a blatant attempt to censor our reporting on occupied Palestine. Other than stating that "community guidelines were not followed," Meta terminated our page without notice. Our coverage follows journalistic standards and displays no graphic… pic.twitter.com/C1wybl3RCR
— red. (@redstreamnet) October 7, 2023
Read next: Meta: New Name, Same Game of Censoring Palestinians
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"Israel" and its supporters have sought on numerous occasions to remove opposing voices from the airwaves or the internet. Former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked boasted that she worked closely with Facebook to censor Palestinian voices, with the Silicon Valley company agreeing to remove around 95% of the information she requested.
#Palestinian users were deprived of their freedom of expression during the 2-week war on #Gaza by "Israel" last year, by having their content blocked on Facebook and penalizing Arabic-speaking users more heavily than those who spoke Hebrew. pic.twitter.com/DZC2NLV6sW
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 26, 2022
Facebook censors #OperationAlAqsaFlood
The Facebook platform banned sharing any posts that include the hashtag #OperationAlAqsaFlood and also banned posts that included content related to Palestine.
Thus, users can no longer share their posts with this hashtag amid the ongoing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance and the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, for the third day in a row.
For its part, the Sada Social Center, which is concerned with digital rights in Palestine and monitors digital violations, condemned the fight by the administrations of social media platforms (Meta, Tiktok, X) of Palestinian content related to current events in occupied Palestine.
The Center explained that the fight consisted of blocking media pages and personal accounts during Palestinian press coverage.
