When Censorship Kills – Social Media and the War on the Palestinian Narrative
Human Rights Watch has accused the social media giant Meta of "systemic censorship" of Palestine content. (Photo: Via HRW)
By Ramzy Baroud
Social media censorship is a global phenomenon, but the war on pro-Palestinian views on social media represents a different kind of censorship, with consequences that can only be described as dire.
Long before the current devastating war on Gaza, and the escalation of Israeli violence and repression in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices have been censored.
Some date the censorship to an agreement in 2016 that, according to the Israeli government, sought to “force social networks to remove content that Israel considers to be incitement.”
This was translated, almost immediately, to the shutting down of thousands of accounts and the barring of many social media influencers, with the hope of slowing down the vastly growing pro-Palestinian tendencies in all Meta-linked platforms.
The war on Gaza, however, has escalated the censorship. In a report submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Human Rights Watch noted that the documented restrictions on freedom of speech “undermine the fundamental human rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”
The censorship became so sophisticated, and increasingly involved a direct Israeli role. An investigation by The Intercept last October demonstrated that Jordan Cutler, a former senior Israeli official now working as Meta’s Israel policy chief, advocated for the censorship of Instagram accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
To ensure that ‘offenders’ to Israeli sensibilities were eliminated in large numbers, Meta began censoring specific words, thus deeming entire contents offensive, racist and antisemitic.
But Meta was not the only social media network involved in this practice. On November 17, 2023, the X platform (previously known as Twitter) declared that users who write terms like “decolonization”, “from the river to the sea,” or similar expressions would be suspended.
One year later, the social media platform Twitch followed suit by revising its ‘Hateful Content Policy’ to include “Zionist” as a potential slur.
Not only do these decisions, and many others, directly impair the freedom of speech and press, but they also confuse rational conversations with anti-Jewish sentiments.
The word ‘genocide’, for example, is not a swear word, but a common term, embraced by numerous countries around the world, accusing Israel of carrying out acts of genocide, meaning the “systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.”.
Under pressure from many countries, and after presenting a powerful case at the Hague, South Africa managed to compel the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
In other words, this is not a matter for Mark Zuckerberg or any other social media company to decide, based on direct consultations with those carrying out the mass killings in Gaza.
The same applies to Zionism, an ideologically situated political movement, that traces its history to 19th-century Europe, thus, neither to a specific race nor a religious text.
While many are, rightly, outraged by the fact that this kind of widespread, and growing, censorship directly challenges the main tenants of democracy, the actual harm for Palestinians is much bigger.
According to a November 2024 report by the Sada Social Center for Digital Rights, the surge in digital violations targeting Palestinian content could not come at a worse time.
According to the organization, “Meta platforms accounted for the largest share of violations at 57%, followed by TikTok at 23%.” YouTube and X follow at 13 and 7% respectively.
This censorship, according to Sada, includes the shutting down of WhatsApp accounts, another Meta-owned platform that is also tightly controlled.
Unlike most of us, Palestinians in Gaza use these platforms to communicate with one another, to know who is dead and who is alive, and to raise awareness of certain massacres, often taking place in isolation, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.
Regarding northern Gaza, Sada Social spoke of a ‘digital blackout’, which has compounded the horror of that region – famine, mass killing, destruction of all hospitals, etc.
In the specific case of social media censorship in Gaza, lives are literally being lost as a result of politically motivated decisions.
Human Rights Watch was one of many rights groups that have routinely spoken about the ‘systematic censorship’ by Meta, especially on Facebook and Instagram. A December 2023 HRW report identified the following six recurring patterns of censorship: removal of content, suspension of pro-Palestinian accounts, the reduction of visibility, known as ‘shadow-banning’, the restrictions on engagement, and the deliberate misuse of policies on hate speech and graphic content.
HRW said that Meta’s “overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals” exacerbates the issue, silencing crucial narratives at a time when Palestinian communities face severe repression and atrocities.
The danger of this kind of censorship is multilayered. It is a direct threat to one of the most basic freedoms guaranteed under the law in any democratic society. In the case of Gaza, the censorship takes a dark, deadly turn as it could make the difference between people dying under the rubble of their homes or receiving assistance.
Additionally, censorship of this magnitude often creates precedents and often leads to other forms of censorship, which, in fact, are already taking place against other vulnerable communities, whether on a national stage or globally.
While the international community is yet to translate its verbal solidarity with Palestinians into any meaningful action, the least we could do is to give Palestinians their full rights to express their views, share their pain, and raise awareness of their collective plight. The world owes them that much, and no social media company should be permitted to hinder such a simple and reasonable demand.
– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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