International rights group slams Meta for ‘censoring’ pro-Palestinian content

Shafaq News/ Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Thursday slammed Meta, the umbrella company that runs social media and messaging titans Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, for “silencing voices in support of Palestine.”

“Meta’s content moderation policies and systems have increasingly silenced voices in support of Palestine on Instagram and Facebook in the wake of the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups,” said the 51-page report, titled Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook.

“Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals,” HRW also said in an article – which provides details on the findings of the report – published on its website.

“Human Rights Watch reviewed 1,050 cases of online censorship from over 60 countries. Though they are not necessarily a representative analysis of censorship, the cases are consistent with years of reporting and advocacy by Palestinian, regional, and international human rights organizations detailing Meta’s censorship of content supporting Palestinians,” the HRW said.

According to the HRW report, there are six key patterns of censorship, “each recurring in at least 100 instances: content removals, suspension or deletion of accounts, inability to engage with content, inability to follow or tag accounts, restrictions on the use of features such as Instagram/Facebook Live, and ‘shadow banning’,” a term denoting a significant decrease in the visibility of an individual’s posts, stories or account without notification.

“In over 300 cases, users were unable to appeal content or account removal because the appeal mechanism malfunctioned, leaving them with no effective access to a remedy,” the HRW said.

According to the HRW, Meta is using its “Dangerous Organizations and Individuals” (DOI) policy “sweepingly to restrict legitimate speech around hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.”

“Meta also misapplied its policies on violent and graphic content, violence and incitement, hate speech, and nudity and sexual activity. It has inconsistently applied its ‘newsworthy allowance’ policy, removing dozens of pieces of content documenting Palestinian injury and death that has news value,” the rights group said.

According to HRW, Meta has also failed in its commitment to make changes in its ways to enforce content moderation.

“In 2022, in response to the investigation’s recommendations as well as guidance by Meta’s Oversight Board, Meta made a commitment to make a series of changes to its policies and their enforcement in content moderation. Almost two years later, though, Meta has not carried out its commitments, and the company has failed to meet its human rights responsibilities,” HRW said, referring to an independent investigation that found that the company’s content moderation in 2021 “had an adverse human rights impact on the rights of Palestinian users,” and also adversely affected “the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred.”

Palestinian social media activists have long been complaining about bias by social media platforms as they face growing restrictions, with many contents being blocked or removed.

The Sada Social Center, an organization dedicated to monitoring and documenting digital violations against Palestine content online, said social media platforms removed thousands of posts and accounts since Oct. 7, the day fighting erupted between Hamas and Israel.