Palestinian censorship from Facebook! – Technology News
Since the beginning of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, only a limited number of journalists from outside have been allowed to enter Gaza, and those who have been allowed to conduct controlled shootings accompanied by the Israeli army.
While social media fills this gap for those who want to get more news from Gaza, the Facebook pages of Palestine-based news organizations such as Palestine TV, Wafa news agency and Palestinian Al Watan News stand out as a vital source of information for many people around the world. output.
In this context, the BBC examined the interaction on the Facebook pages of 20 leading Palestinian-based news organizations in the year before and after the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
While mass interaction was expected to increase during the war period, the analysis showed that there was a 77 percent decrease in the interaction of Facebook accounts of Palestine-based media organizations after October 7, 2023.
Journalists working at Palestine TV, which has 5.8 million followers on Facebook, shared statistics with the BBC showing that there was a 60 percent decrease in the number of people who saw their posts.
Tarık Ziyad, a journalist working for Palestine TV, said, “Interaction was completely restricted and our posts stopped reaching people.” he said.
INTERACTIONS WITH ISRAELI NEWS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE INCREASED
Examining the reason for the decrease in interaction rates, BBC found the opposite graph when it looked at Israel-based news organizations.
While examining the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organizations such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13, it was revealed that the interactions of these pages increased by approximately 37 percent.
The BBC also conducted the same analysis on the Facebook pages of 30 leading Arabic news outlets, including Sky News Arabia and Al Jazeera.
Here, there was an increase of approximately 100 percent in interaction.
OBJECTION FROM META TO IMPLICATIONS THAT HE DESIGNATORY SUPPRESSED CERTAIN SOUNDS
Facebook owner Meta says insinuations that it deliberately suppresses certain voices are “absolutely false.”
Meta explained that the group “has difficulty balancing the right to freedom of expression” on the grounds that Hamas has been identified as a dangerous organization under both the United States’ and Meta’s own policies.
A spokesperson for Meta made a statement on the issue: “We admit we made mistakes, but any insinuation that we deliberately suppressed a particular voice is absolutely false.” he said.
CODE MESSAGE WITHIN THE COMPANY
Five former and current employees of Meta evaluated the impact of company policies on Palestinian users and said, “Within a week after the Hamas attack, the code was changed and the system essentially became more aggressive against Palestinians.”
In internal messages, it was also seen that an engineer expressed concerns about the code change in question, as it “could introduce a new bias against Palestinian users.”