In a serious escalation of violations on Palestinian content by social media websites, Sada Social Center said, in a report, that it has documented 223 violations against Palestinian content in November, 2019, up by 50 percent from the previous month.
According to the report, Facebook ranked at top of the violators, with a total of 134 violations, ranging from the removal of pages, accounts, posts and publications, and the restriction of access. The most notable of those violations were the removal of the following pages: Tulkarm Baldna, Shabab Baladna, Nablus Breaking News, Nablus Times, Anabta Times, Faqqu’a Town, Dura City, and We All Love You Nablus.
In another serious violation, the first of its kind, WhatsApp banned more than 77 Palestinian phone numbers which belonged to activists, journalists, and others, without any legal justification.
Twitter has also deleted 8 Palestinian accounts, the most important of which are: Quds News Network (the English and Arabic pages), Quds Network Network – Breaking, the personal accounts of Yusuf Isleih, Yahya Helles, and Samir Al Khairy Account.
Sada Social Center also documented 4 violations of the Palestinian content by Instagram and one by YouTube, PNN further reports.
The center said that it has been in continuous contact with the social media administrations in order to restore the removed accounts and pages. So far, this month, it was able to restore 18 Palestinian pages and accounts on Facebook, in addition to the Twitter account of the Palestinian government’s spokesman, Ibrahim Melhem.
Launched in early September 2017, Sada Social Center has been concerned with launching initiatives to enrich Palestinian content on the Internet, especially on the social media, and monitor any violations of this content.
