When we ask Meta leadership about the public’s concerns of biased censorship of Palestinian content on Meta platforms, they dismiss us and tell us that Meta is not censoring Palestine. We want to show Meta leaders that there is growing outrage and anger at the rampant censorship of Palestine content and accounts by compiling news articles and reports accusing Meta of biased censorship.

Meta Employees in the Media:

  • The Wall Street Journal: Inside Meta, Debate Over What’s Fair in Suppressing Comments in the Palestinian Territories: In trying to prevent Instagram and Facebook from contributing to further violence, Meta is juggling internal friction and limited tools (by Sam Schechner, Jeff Horwitz, and Newley Purnell - Oct 21, 2023)

  • Financial Times: Meta staffer claims to be under investigation after alleging ‘censorship’ of pro-Palestinian views (by Hannah Murphy and Cristina Criddle - Jan 9, 2024 )

  • Business Insider: A Meta employee says she's under investigation after claiming the firm censors pro-Palestinian views: A letter she posted alleging censorship of pro-Palestinian views collected 450 signatures before it was deleted (by Sawdah Bhaimiya - Jan 10, 2024)

  • Fortune: Meta employee calls out ‘toxic’ rules that ban staff from discussing controversial topics like Israel–Palestine after an alleged investigation where she was ‘kicked out of internal systems’: Saima Akhter has expressed fears that an internal ban on controversial political topics is the beginning of censorship across its platforms like Instagram and Facebook, claiming she was removed from the company’s systems for two months after penning concerns about the Israel-Gaza conflict. (by Orianna Rosa Royale - March 28, 2024)

  • Wired: How Watermelon Cupcakes Kicked Off an Internal Storm at Meta: Arab and Muslim workers at Meta allege that its response to the crisis in Gaza is one-sided and out of hand. “It makes me sick that I work for this company,” says one employee. (by Paresh Dave and Vittoria Elliott - July 11, 2024)

  • Daily Dot: Meta employee group reveals ex-Netanyahu staffer pushed to ban pro-Palestine account (by Tricia Crimmins - Sept 25, 2024)

Human Rights Organizations, NGOs, and Activists

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation: Digital Rights Groups Urge Meta to Stop Silencing Palestine

  • Muslim Legal: Palestine Censored Form: documenting instances of pro-Palestine activists having their social media content banned or censored for peacefully advocating for Palestine 

  • Access Now: #StopSilencingPalestine: Meta must overhaul its biased content moderation

  • Fight for the Future: Meta: Let Palestine Speak

  • Substack, Khaled Beydoun: Instagram is materially invested in suppressing Palestine and the legions of voices speaking up for it; 95% of the requests Israel makes to Instagram to remove Palestine content is granted

  • Amnesty International: Social media companies must step up crisis response on Israel-Palestine as online hate and censorship proliferate

  • StopCensoringPalestine.org: “We renew our call to Meta to stop its systemic censorship of Palestinian voices by overhauling its content moderation practices and policies that continue to restrict content about Palestine. Two years after our initial campaign, our demands remain unmet. Given the ongoing conflict, the urgency for Meta to address our—now updated—recommendations is greater than ever.”

  • Access Now (2021): Sheikh Jarrah: Facebook and Twitter systematically silencing protests, deleting evidence

  • Human Rights watch (2021): Letter to Miranda Sissons, Director of Human Rights on Censorship of Palestinian content on Facebook and Instagram with series of questions, that went relatively unanswered

  • 7amleh (2020): Deep dive into policies and practices of governments and companies on Palestinian digital rights

Media

  • NBC: Demonstrators protest outside Meta's HQ in Menlo Park over handling of Palestinian content

  • WIRED: Palestinians Claim Social Media ‘Censorship’ Is Endangering Lives

  • TechCrunch: Meta has a moderation bias problem, not just a ‘bug,’ that’s suppressing Palestinian voices

  • Vox: Why some Palestinians believe social media companies are suppressing their posts

  • Mashable: People are accusing Instagram of shadowbanning content about Palestine

  • The Hill: Palestinian groups accuse Meta of unfairly moderating speech amid Israel-Hamas conflict

  • Washington Post: Pro-Palestinian creators use secret spellings, code words to evade social media algorithms

  • Al Jazeera: Even in time of genocide, Big Tech silences Palestinians 

  • The Guardian: Instagram users accuse platform of censoring posts supporting Palestine 

  • The Guardian: WhatsApp’s AI shows gun-wielding children when prompted with ‘Palestine’

  • Al Jazeera: Meta deletes Al Jazeera presenter’s profile after show criticizing Israel 

  • Middle East Eye: Israel-Palestine war: How Meta is once again failing Palestinians

  • The New York Times - Social Media Users Accuse Facebook, Instagram of Suppressing Pro-Palestinian Posts (October 16, 2023)

  • Reuters - Meta to limit some Facebook comments on Israeli, Palestinian posts (October 18, 2023)

  • Al Jazeera - Are social media giants censoring pro-Palestine voices amid Israel's war? (October 24, 2023)

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation - Platforms Must Stop Unjustified Takedowns of Posts By and About Palestinians, November 8, 2023)

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation - Digital Rights Groups Urge Meta to Stop Silencing Palestine (December 6, 2023)

  • The Intercept - Meta Overhauls Controversial “Dangerous Organizations” Censorship Policy (August 30, 2023)

  • The Intercept - Senator Elizabeth Warren Questions Meta over Palestinian Censorship

  • KRON4 - Pro-Palestine rally at Meta headquarters in response to alleged shadow banning (December 12, 2023)

  • The Cradle - Meta’s role in Israel’s digital proxy war on The Cradle: The banning of The Cradle from Facebook and Instagram shows a troubling alliance with Israeli-linked groups to silence voices critical of the occupation state, especially those media outlets covering its adversaries’ narratives (by Kit Klarenberg Sept 3, 2024)

Viral Social Posts

  • Censored Men: Instagram is actively shadowbanning pro-Palestinian content.

  • Ahmed Eldin: Instagram is censoring accounts sharing news of genocide while allowing accounts from Israel gov to share posts of them committing war crimes and spreading propaganda and disinformation repeatedly.

  • Muslim News: Although our account was restored, we are calling on Meta to end its continued censorship.