Facebook’s Curbs on Palestinian News Outlets During Israel-Gaza Conflict

BBC research indicates that Facebook significantly limited the reach of Palestinian news organizations to their audiences throughout the Israel-Gaza conflict. A detailed examination of Facebook data revealed a substantial decrease in audience engagement for newsrooms located in the Palestinian territories, specifically Gaza and the West Bank, starting in October 2023. Furthermore, the BBC has reviewed leaked documents suggesting that Instagram, another platform owned by Meta, intensified its moderation of comments made by Palestinian users following October 2023. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, asserts that any suggestion of intentional suppression of specific voices is “unequivocally false.” From the onset of the Israel-Gaza war, only a limited number of external reporters gained entry into the Palestinian coastal region of Gaza, and their access was exclusively under the escort of the Israeli army. Social media platforms subsequently served as a substitute for individuals seeking additional perspectives from within Gaza. Facebook pages belonging to news organizations like Palestine TV, Wafa news agency, and Palestinian Wattan News, which operate from the West Bank territory, emerged as crucial providers of information for a global audience. BBC News Arabic gathered engagement metrics from the Facebook pages of 20 significant Palestinian-based news organizations, covering the year preceding the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and the year following. Engagement serves as a primary indicator of a social media account’s influence and the visibility of its content, encompassing elements such as comments, reactions, and shares. While audience engagement would typically be anticipated to increase during wartime, the collected data indicated a 77% reduction after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. Palestine TV maintains 5.8 million followers on Facebook. Journalists from the newsroom provided statistics demonstrating a 60% decrease in the reach of their posts. Tariq Ziad, a journalist at the channel, stated, “Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people.” For the past year, Palestinian journalists have expressed concerns that Meta is “shadow-banning” their online content, meaning its visibility to audiences is being limited. To investigate this, the same data analysis was conducted on the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organizations, including Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom, and Channel 13. Despite these pages also publishing significant amounts of war-related material, their audience engagement rose by almost 37%. Meta has previously faced accusations from Palestinians and human rights organizations regarding its alleged failure to moderate online activity impartially. A 2021 independent report, commissioned by the company, concluded that this issue was not intentional but stemmed from an insufficient number of Arabic-speaking experts among its moderators. Consequently, certain words and phrases were being misconstrued as offensive or violent, despite being innocuous. For instance, the Arabic expression “Alhamdulillah,” meaning “Praise be to God,” was occasionally automatically translated as “Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.” To ascertain whether this factor accounted for the reduced engagement observed with Palestinian outlets, the BBC applied the same analytical method to the Facebook pages of 30 notable Arabic-language news sources located in other regions, including Sky News Arabia and Al-Jazeera. Nevertheless, these pages experienced an average engagement increase of almost 100%. In response to the research, Meta highlighted that it had openly disclosed “temporary product and policy measures” implemented in October 2023. The company stated it encountered a dilemma in reconciling freedom of speech with Hamas’s status as both US-sanctioned and classified as a dangerous organization under Meta’s internal policies. The technology firm further indicated that pages focusing solely on the conflict were more prone to experiencing an impact on their engagement. A spokesperson commented, “We acknowledge we make mistakes, but any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false.” The BBC also interviewed five individuals, both former and current employees of Meta, regarding the perceived effects of the company’s policies on individual Palestinian users. One anonymous source provided leaked internal documents detailing an alteration to Instagram’s algorithm that intensified the moderation of comments made by Palestinians on Instagram posts. This individual stated, “Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive towards Palestinian people.” Internal communications indicate that an engineer voiced apprehension regarding the directive, expressing concern that it might be “introducing a new bias into the system against Palestinian users.” Meta verified the implementation of the measure, asserting its necessity to address what it termed a “spike in hateful content” originating from the Palestinian territories. The company stated that policy adjustments enacted at the commencement of the Israel-Gaza war have since been rescinded, though it did not specify the date of this reversal. Reports indicate that a minimum of 137 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the conflict’s inception, yet a small number persist in their work despite the hazards. Omar el Qataa, one of the few photojournalists who opted to remain in northern Gaza, remarked, “A lot of information can’t be published as it is too graphic – for example if the [Israeli] army commits a massacre and we film it, the video won’t spread.” He added, “But in spite of the challenges, the risks, and the content bans, we must continue sharing Palestinian content.” Additional reporting was contributed by Rehab Ismail and Natalie Merzougui. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.