Instagram and Facebook suppressed images reportedly taken after the explosion at a Gaza hospital last week — blocking a photo of a wounded torso outside flaming rubble as violating “guidelines on nudity or sexual activity.”
The social media giants appear to be deleting posts, locking accounts, and wiping search results related to Israel’s bombing campaign, which has forced 1.4 million Gaza residents out of their homes.
The Intercept is investigating how Big Tech is silencing Palestinians on social media — and exposing the tactics powerful institutions use to shut down dissent.
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Israel’s bombing campaign has killed thousands of Palestinians and destroyed Gaza’s communications infrastructure. Electrical outages are widespread. Foreign journalists have almost no access to Gaza, so getting updates from the ground is difficult.
A trickle of information from Gaza is still reaching the outside world through social media platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. But Palestinians and activists against the occupation are finding that Meta’s ambiguous rules are disproportionately enforced against them.
Meta has removed graphic images like those allegedly showing the hospital bombing as violations of its community guidelines — despite carving out an exception to its rules for the Ukraine war. Users who frequently post pro-Palestine content say they’ve been effectively hidden by the platforms.
This social media censorship is fueling the same pro-war consensus that U.S. politicians and news outlets have backed for years — to disastrous results. Our newsroom is racing to expose this suppression of dissent, but to continue standing up to the overwhelming groupthink on Israel, we need your support.
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