The Journalist Support Committee (JSC) said it had documented a significant increase in the censorship of Palestinian content by Facebook and other social media platforms accusing them of persisting in suppressing Palestinian news agencies journalists and activists.
“Since the beginning of June the Facebook administration has been going overboard in its practices under flimsy pretexts blocking the pages of Quds Press without any prior notice just a few days after the agency covered Israeli attacks at the Aqsa Mosque and the flag march in Occupied Jerusalem — before these pages were allowed to go back online a few days later” JSC stated in a report on Wednesday.
“Facebook has recently blocked the account of journalist Yehya al-Yaqoubi who work for Palestine newspaper and the page of the Encyclopedia of Palestinian Camps as well as the pages of journalists Ihab al-Jariri and Ali Obeidat” JSC said.
JSC also accused Facebook of taking offline dozens of Palestinian pages and accounts belonging to media groups and journalists describing its practices in this regard as a “flagrant violation of the freedom of opinion and journalistic work that are protected by the international law.”
It underlined that such Facebook practices are aimed at muzzling the Palestinian voice in view of the ongoing Israeli plans that target the Palestinian people’s presence on their own land.
Facebook already admitted that it had responded to hundreds of requests submitted by the Israeli authorities asking for blocking accounts or postings belonging to Palestinian news outlets and social media activists.
It cited incitement against Israel and its citizens to justify its measures against Palestinian accounts while ignoring Israeli incitement against the Palestinians on its platform.
For many years Facebook has been imposing tight restrictions on publishing postings and accessing pages supporting the Palestinian people even if what is published is purely news content.
