Facebook stifling Palestinian voices, claim digital rights activists

Palestinian digital rights activists called out Facebook and other social media platforms for censoring content that criticised Israel, as per a report by Reuters.

The activists said that the social media giant is bowing down under the Israeli government's pressure and sought to halt the ongoing practices of removing and demoting the content.

Nadim Nashif, the founder of a digital rights organisation said that Facebook's stance can be seen as a war on the Palestinian narrative and an attempt to silence them from speaking about their oppression and suffering.

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On the other hand, Palestinian activist and writer Mohammed El-Kurd said that he noticed the view of his posts on Instagram where he has close to 7.5 lakh followers being decreased dramatically during the protests in Sheikh Jarrah followed by war in May this year.
The Israeli government is clearly threatened by Palestinian voices, he added.

Another user claimed that her posts especially the ones tagged with #SaveSheikhJarrah had been removed from Facebook and Instagram citing violation of community guidelines.

Meanwhile, Facebook referred to the work of its Independent Oversight Board and said that it would implement the recommendations of the board.