Israel-Gaza Conflict: Instagram Accused Of Censorship Of Pro-Palestinian Posts

Several social media users have been complaining that Instagram suspended their accounts due to their pro–Palestinian content in the wake of Israel’s intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Facebook-owned Instagram claimed that it changed its algorithm regarding pro-Palestinian content back in May. However, it doesn’t seem true now as many Insta users have come across restrictions on their accounts and the inability to live stream during the ongoing Israel-Gaza Conflict.

Israel-Gaza Conflict: Insta Users Complain About Censorship of Pro-Palestinian Posts

A news and analysis account, Mondoweiss is dedicated to Palestine with platforms on X and TikTok. They reported that its TikTok account had been temporarily taken down. Then there is a London-based user, who asked not to be named for fear of harassment. According to her, several Instagram stories posted from her account regarding Palestine only received up to five views within a couple of hours. On the other hand, when she posted a picture of a skirt, she reached 91 views in 40 minutes.

Several other Instagram users with pro-Palestinian accounts also took to the site to raise awareness of the issue. One user shared a story saying:

“OK, so literally not one soul has seen my stories for the past hour.”

After a while, she posted another story with the Palestinian flag saying that 40 people saw the post within five minutes. Let’s have a look:

The pro-Palestinian accounts were targeted after the Israeli siege was imposed on the Gaza Strip. Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz stated:

“no electric switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until hostages taken by Hamas in its action were freed.”

Meta denies any claims of censorship on the basis of taking sides or muting Palestinian voices. Meta says that our policies are devised to give everyone a voice while keeping people safe on our apps. The company claims to apply these policies regardless of who is posting. This is not the first time when Meta and its subsidiaries including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have been accused of censorship and shadow banning. Meta even worked with groups such as 7amleh to address this kind of issue. The platform even engaged with other civil society organizations to mitigate its human rights impact following an assessment of its performance during Sheikh Jarrah (protests). The executive director and co-founder of 7amleh, Nadir Nashif stated:

“When we believe certain media platforms are not safeguarding the digital rights of Palestinians, we work to build pressure on those platforms, through our communities, to ensure those social media platforms acknowledge their role and responsibilities to human rights and to ensure their platforms are free from discrimination.”

In order to tackle the shadow-bans, users circulated a memo highlighting how to get around Meta’s guidelines. Let’s have a look at that:

I hope this memo will help you minimize shadow banning on social media platforms. Do share with us in the comment section if it proves helpful.