Facebook Is Reportedly Suppressing Posts About Middle East Conflict

Since conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas last week, social media platforms have been swamped with misinformation, scams, and other forms of dangerous content seeking to capitalize on the news. However, Facebook may have gone overboard in its effort to address the problem, with some pro-Palestinian activists claiming that the company is suppressing or removing their posts.

“Instagram and Facebook are actively blocking posts about the factual history of Israel/Palestine, sometimes cloaking it as ‘technical difficulty,’” an advocacy think tank called the Hampton Institute posted earlier this week.

According to these users, Facebook is also allegedly hiding messages of support for Palestinian civilians and posts calling for peaceful protests in the US. For its part, Facebook blamed an accidental bug in its systems for some of these removals, while noting that it has temporarily suppressed others while it’s figuring out how to deal with a high number of posts with graphic content. The social media giant also insisted that it enforces its content policies equally across all viewpoints, though it’s clear the company still has a lot of work to do to prove that’s true. Hopefully Facebook can get it figured out so more users feel like their voices are being heard.




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