Meta: New Name, Same Game of Censoring Palestinians
4 Min Read
The Israeli occupation has been using its relations with Meta to marginalize and suppress the Palestinian cause online, which pro-Palestinian activists had enough of, calling for action.
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Meta's policies constitute a precedent in the history of violations against the freedom of the press
Activists and journalists have started a campaign against Meta's policies, which have been targeting Palestinian content and the Palestinian narrative.
This campaign came in light of a purge carried out by the tech giant, which saw Meta removing and suspending several Palestinian pages and thousands of accounts, including news pages that had been voicing out the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation.
The purge mainly targeted Palestinian journalists known for their efforts of covering "Israel's" violations of the human rights of Palestinians and the occupation's crimes against Palestinians.
Activists have taken to denouncing Meta's double standard policy on its platforms.
"While [Meta] is escalating its crackdown on the Palestinian narrative under flimsy pretexts, it does not lift a finger about the Israeli incitement, which calls for the killing and apprehension of Palestinians, especially after the recent incident at the Chain Gate in occupied Jerusalem," the statement read.
Human Rights Watch had previously accused Meta, then-Facebook, of wrongfully removing and suppressing content by Palestinians and their supporters, including content regarding human rights abuses committed by "Israel" against Palestinians during the Seif al-Quds battle.
This campaign, which is calling for protesting against the social media giant's policies online under the hashtag "#FbCensorsJerusalem" on Wednesday, has accused Meta of ignoring the Palestinian narrative on the Israeli occupation's crimes in occupied al-Quds.
Palestinian journalists and activists have called for a massive Twitter storm using the hashtag #FBCensorsJerusalem
— Eman𓂆🇵🇸 (@Emannajee) November 23, 2021
in protest of Meta's crackdown on pro-Palestinian content on its Facebook platform.
🗓on Wednesday, Nov 24,
⏰at 7:00 pm (Jerusalem),
5:00 pm (GMT).
Share with us pic.twitter.com/qA17PnfFHn
"Facebook's algorithms strictly censor any pro-Palestinian content and do not take into account what’s happening on the ground in Palestine," the statement added.
The statement also reiterated its denunciation of Facebook's double standards with how it forced many people, political parties, party leaders, and others who are highly censored by Meta, to change their names and profiles to circumvent the arbitrary policies, all the while Israelis were roaming freely on its platforms as they were inciting violence and murder against Palestinians.
It goes without saying that Meta fully adopts the Israeli narrative, something the campaign has shed light upon, asserting that the social media giant is doing so by imposing increased restrictions on the Palestinian narrative while giving a free hand to Israeli content.
Meta is guided to repress the Palestinian people and eliminate their narrative
The Meta administration is gradually becoming an inherent part of the Israeli colonial regime, guided to repress the Palestinian people and eliminate their narrative, the campaign added, underscoring that Meta is an accomplice to the Israeli crime for hiding the violations against the Palestinian people.
Palestinian content is facing real danger, the campaign asserted, especially in light of the algorithms that remove posts that dare include the names of Palestinian political parties or resistance factions, such as Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP without any context being taken into consideration.
"[This] constitutes a precedent in the history of violations against the freedom of the press," the campaign declared.
It also deplored the occupation and its usage of relations with Meta to eliminate the Palestinian narrative, "which has been formed through the blood and agony of the Palestinian people."
"Our narrative is greater than a bogus virtual world, which will never prevent its spread to the world."
In just one year, Meta managed to remove over 350 Palestinian pages, keeping thousands of Israeli ones inciting violence and crimes against Arabs.
Big tech has long been an accomplice to the Israeli crimes against Palestinians, like Meta, then Facebook had acknowledged in 2017 that it was complying with 95% of the Israeli government's requests to remove Palestinian accounts and pages. YouTube was an accomplice as well, less so, but still as bad, with an 80% compliance rate.
