Agencies-Gaza post
132 violations against Palestinian content documented in May
The Ramallah-based social media watch group, Sada Social Center, said on Saturday that it has registered 132 violations against the Palestinian digital range on social media platforms during the month of May.
It announced that Palestinian reports received a number of content policy violation reports, which caused restrictions on posting, post reach, and bans on posting news related to Palestine.
In a shock action and a further condition to reach the Palestinian user, said Sada Social Center in a statement, Meta classified the Palestinian freedom fighter imprisoned in Israel, Zakaria al-Zubaidi, as a dangerous individual on the Facebook platform, and administered warnings to those who search for his name on the platform, in addition to classifying a number of Palestinian personalities and groups as “dangerous individuals or organizations.”
On the Facebook platform, Meta deleted the charges of those accused of carrying out the attack in the Israeli town of Elad, in addition to deleting videos, posts, and facts proving Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and assaulting her funeral.
Meta was explicitly agreeing with the “Facebook Law” approved by the Israeli Knesset in the first and second readings, which obligates media sites and social networks to omit content claiming to combat “incitement” and “terrorism”, and not to prejudice “state security, public security, and individual security”.
This law seeks to impose more restrictions on voices supporting the Palestinian cause and rejecting Israel’s occupation via social media platforms, which represents a serious threat to Palestinian digital rights, and works to hide the political content required of the Israeli occupation authorities through the digital space, in addition to donating in covering up their crimes and obstructing their accountability, said the Palestinian social media watch group.
Palestinian news pages are still suffering from conditions, which block their work and spread, especially when many periods and names connected to the political situation are used, it added. Most of these terms are classified under the ban algorithm as the center monitored the banning of many news posts due to the use of the name of Yahya al-Sinwar, leader of the Hamas movement in Gaza.
“This indicates a lack of consideration for the specificity of the Palestinian cause and considering the mere transmission of the news an incitement to violence, which in turn hinders the dissemination of information and news,” Sada Social said.
The Center observed offenses against more than 64 accounts of journalists, news networks, and activists, which represents at least 48% of the total violations of digital content during May.
The violations are allocated as follows: Facebook: 70 violations, Twitter: 5 violations, Instagram: 8 violations, YouTube: 13, WhatsApp: 42 violations belonging to news networks and journalists, Tik Tok: 5, and ClubHouse: 1 violation.
The Center stated it will continue efforts to monitor violations against the Palestinian content and work to follow up on them with the Facebook administration. It also appealed to civil society institutions to defend Palestinian digital rights that are disobeyed daily and without any rights.
It reported that it is still working to correct many accounts that are subject to harassment and ban, stressing the importance of establishing these violations based on the extent of being on digital platforms and conveying the Palestinian record like the rest of those about the world and concern for the freedom of expression and publication as a universal right assured by all international ways.
Source: WAFA
