META SAYS PRO-PALESTINE ACCOUNTS LOCKED “FOR SECURITY REASONS”

Thu 26 October 2023:

Meta says it has locked pro-Palestine accounts with millions of followers after detecting a possible hacking attempt.

The @Eye.on.palestine account, which has more than six million followers on Instagram and focuses on sharing content from Palestine, went dark on Wednesday.

ARE SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS CENSORING PRO-PALESTINE VOICES AMID ISRAEL’S WAR?

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads said it was trying to reach its owners.

A backup account, @Eye.on.palestine2, was also inaccessible on Wednesday, along with related Facebook and Threads accounts.

The accounts focused on posting media from Gaza, including videos and images of injured people.

The disruption to the accounts has sparked anger among followers. In posts on X, some followers interpreted the disappearance of the pages as an example of anti-Palestinian censorship.

Meta censorship of Palestinian voices has been damning and damaging. Eye on Palestine had over 6 million Instagram followers. Call for @Meta to reinstate this account now and stop silencing Palestinian voices. pic.twitter.com/tRW0SMJO35

— Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman504) October 25, 2023

But Meta said late Wednesday that it had disabled the accounts because of security concerns.

“These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise, and we’re working to make contact with the account owners to ensure they have access,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement.

“We did not disable these accounts because of any content they were sharing,” he said.

Stone didn’t provide any other details about Meta’s investigation into the signs of compromise. He said the investigation was continuing.

🚨🇵🇸 Zuckerberg’s Meta has BANNED the Instagram account “Eye on Palestine” with over 6 million followers!

🇷🇺 Reminds me of when they banned ALL RUSSIAN NEWS at the start of the Ukraine War! pic.twitter.com/2932KY9p7Q

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) October 25, 2023

In May, the Eye on Palestine Telegram account said that it had received a warning from Instagram about a hacker that had tried to access its account. The Eye on Palestine Telegram account remained online Wednesday evening with more than 441,000 subscribers.

On X, the account @EyeonPalestine was listed as no longer being in existence. It wasn’t clear when the account disappeared. The Internet Archive shows it active as of Oct. 13. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The various accounts were all listed together on one Linktree account.

Are social media giants censoring Pro-Palestine voices ?

From the US to Europe to India, users and activists say the world’s largest social media platforms are curtailing the reach of content critical of Israel.

Users have accused Instagram, owned by Meta, of arbitrarily taking down posts that simply mention Palestine for violating “community guidelines”. Others said their Instagram Stories were hidden for sharing information about protests in support of Palestine in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Some also reportedly complained about the word “terrorist” appearing near their Instagram biographies.

In a post on X on October 15, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed the reduced reach of posts on a bug.

“This bug affected accounts equally around the globe and had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content – and we fixed it as quickly as possible,” Stone wrote.

When asked about the accusations of shadowbanning, Stone pointed Al Jazeera to a blog post that Meta published highlighting its latest efforts in tackling misinformation related to the Israel-Hamas war. The post said users who don’t agree with the company’s moderation decisions may appeal.

The BBC reported that Meta apologised for adding the word terrorist to pro-Palestinian accounts, saying the problem that “briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations” has been fixed.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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