NGO: Over 130 violations against Palestinian digital content documented in September

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Sada Social Center said it had documented at least 130 violations against Palestinian digital content during the past month, noting that these violations were distributed among the majority of global social media platforms.

These platforms mainly affected the content and accounts that dealt with the Palestinian situation and the ongoing violations of the Israeli occupation, the Center said, adding the platforms continue their suppression of the Palestinian content and narrative.

Once again, Facebook ranks first in suppressing Palestinian content, said the group in its monthly report issued on Sunday, as 91 violations were documented by the social media giant in September, including deleting accounts, deactivating accounts, restricting the reach, and preventing users from using some features, such as live stream, advertisements and posting on groups.

11 other violations were documented on Instagram, 4 on TikTok, 20 on Whatsapp, 2 on YouTube, and 2 on Twitter, Sada Social said.

Sada Social indicated that journalists and news outlets were the most affected as 73 violations were documented against the pages of media outlets and journalists’ accounts, including those whose accounts were completely deleted, due to their coverage of news related to the Israeli attacks.

The Center said 48% of the affected content were words and captions related to the Palestinian cause, 32% were pictures of Palestinian martyrs killed by Israeli occupation or pictures of Israeli attacks, 16% were videos, mainly for funeral processions of martyrs, and 3% were comments by Palestinians on posts about the Palestinian cause.

It is noteworthy that Sada Social Center is a Palestinian digital rights organization launched in 2017 to protect Palestinian narratives on social media platforms.

In 2020 only, the Center documented 1200 violations against Palestinian content, including 25 on Instagram, 10 on YouTube, 801 on Facebook, and 276 on Twitter.

However, in 2021, it documented 1593 violations against Palestinian content, including 174 on Instagram, 16 on YouTube, 853 on Facebook, and 445 on Twitter.

Meta justifies the restriction on Palestinian content as either incitement or praising acts of violence, and it contradicts the list of terrorist personalities and organizations according to their classification, which means hiding crimes against humanity carried out by Israeli occupation, as well as preventing the Palestinian narrative from spreading, the Center noted.

The Center expressed the seriousness of what it described as “deliberate censorship” and “bias” against Palestinians living under occupation.

Sada Social Center also said it got in contact with the administrations of social media platforms about the accounts that have been violated, while it managed to restore about nine accounts of journalists on Facebook and Instagram.

It stressed that it is continuing to pressure not only towards restoring the deleted accounts and removing restrictions on other accounts but to work to fix these biased algorithms and standards.

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