- Facebook restricts Palestinian news outlets
- Engagement drops 77% since October 2023
- Meta denies deliberately suppressing content
A BBC investigation has found that Facebook severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war. The analysis of Facebook data revealed a steep drop in audience engagement for newsrooms in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank, since October 2023.
The research showed that engagement on Facebook pages of 20 prominent Palestinian-based news organizations declined by 77% after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. In contrast, engagement on Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organizations increased by nearly 37% during the same period.
Palestinian journalists have raised concerns that their online content is being “shadow-banned” by Meta, restricting the number of people who see it. Tariq Ziad, a journalist at Palestine TV, said, “Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people.”
Meta has denied deliberately suppressing Palestinian voices, stating that any implication of this is “unequivocally false.” However, leaked internal documents obtained by the BBC reveal that Instagram increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023.
The documents show that an engineer raised concerns about the change, worrying that it could introduce a new bias into the system against Palestinian users. Meta confirmed the measure, stating it was necessary to respond to a “spike in hateful content” coming out of the Palestinian territories.
The investigation also found that Facebook pages of Arabic-language news sources based elsewhere, such as Sky News Arabia and Al-Jazeera, saw an average increase in engagement of nearly 100%.
Meta pointed out that it had taken “temporary product and policy measures” in October 2023, balancing the right to freedom of speech with the fact that Hamas is a US-sanctioned and designated organization under Meta’s policies.
The tech giant acknowledged that pages posting exclusively about the war were more likely to see engagement impacted. However, Palestinian journalists argue that the restrictions have had a significant impact on their ability to share information and tell their stories.
Omar el Qataa, a photojournalist in northern Gaza, said, “A lot of information can’t be published as it is too graphic… But in spite of the challenges, the risks, and the content bans, we must continue sharing Palestinian content.”
