Sada Social issued its monthly report, warning against the failure and double standards of social media
Sada Social Center monitored a number of violations and abuses carried out by the administration of social media sites against Palestinian content during February as the Center documented more than 30 violations against Palestinian content, most of which on the Facebook and Instagram platforms.The two platforms targeted many media and press accounts while covering the events in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and the news of the martyrdom of three Palestinian in Nablus.
Meta labeled the videos of the beating and arrest of young Palestinian men and women in occupied Jerusalem as “sensitive content” and hid it, while some accounts that published this content received many restrictions and warnings for violating community standards, which actually means blocking Palestinian content that exposes Israeli occupation crimes.
This is an outright targeting of Palestinian content, as tens of thousands of accounts around the world continue to publish violent content that poses a real threat to public safety without being affected by the blocking procedures.
The accusation of exceeding the standards of Meta also affected the accounts that published an obituary for the martyrs, including the page of Ramallah Governor Laila Ghanem and Minister of Health Mai Kaila, after the occupation’s assassination of three Palestinians in Nablus.
While the social media sites claim that they block Palestinian content as sensitive content or incite violence and terrorism and delete and restrict it, they constantly ignore incitement to kill Palestinians and what the Israeli occupation is doing through official and media accounts and pages on the same platforms
Duplication and failure of standards:
The developments related to the Ukrainian crisis with regard to the digital space came to record a clear failure of the standards of social media platforms in protecting the user audience from violent and inflammatory content.
The digital spaces have recently been filled with photos and videos from the Ukrainian and Russian crises, which contain weapons, violent manifestations, and footages to mobilize fighters and teach them to manufacture and use weapons, in addition to other footages that provide a detailed explanation and training content for the use of military weapons by civilians.
These platforms have not taken any action against the thousands of posts and comments urging the fighting in the Ukrainian-Russian war and calling for their joining, but the praise and encouragement of Palestinian resistance fighters is classified as terrorist content by the same platforms.
It was also observed that photos of Palestinian resistance icons and personalities were used in fabricated content as Ukrainian citizens defying Russian soldiers, and these photos were reported to be removed. this confirms that the removal and blocking of Palestinian content is basically linked to a political position biased towards the Israeli occupation adopted by social media sites.
The Center condemns the policy of double standards faced by the Palestinian user on various social media platforms, which violate his human and digital rights and prevent him from accessing information and news in light of the continuous restriction of media agencies and activists’ pages and their coverage of human rights violations in occupied Palestine. It also warns of the profound negative effects of social media’s disregard for violent and inflammatory content published against the backdrop of the Ukrainian-Russian crisis.
The center calls on all users to report any digital violations that affect their accounts or any fake content or fabricated news on social media, as the center continues its efforts to restore accounts and prevent their restriction within the framework of vigorous efforts with social media platforms policy managers
The Center also believe these developments as a clear indication of the failure of the standards and tools used by the social media sites to provide a safe environment for users, and recalls its repeated demands regarding the necessity of reviewing these standards, and setting them on the basis of commitment to the equal rights of human beings, regardless of their race or color, in addition to placing them at the service of safe and fair use for social media.
