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Documenting a new frontier: Big tech accountability and Palestinian digital rights Association For Progressive Communication 

Over one year into the war on Gaza, we continue to see escalations in human rights violations through the use of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). Tech companies have been facilitating Israel’s atrocities against civilians through censorship, surveillance, cyber attacks, disruption of services, mis/disinformation and weaponisation of communication technologies, enjoying full impunity and a shocking lack of accountability. While the violence and lawlessness continue unchecked, APC member 7amleh – The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media has produced a detailed new report titled “Palestinian Digital Rights, Genocide, and Big Tech Accountability,” showing the adverse impacts on Palestinian digital rights in the context of Gaza.

The Take: Uncovering Meta’s censorship policies on Palestine

Aljazeera 

Current and former Meta employees blow the whistle on the company’s mishandling of pro-Palestinian content and retaliation against staff members who speak out. An AJ+ documentary uncovers internal struggles, with testimonies of routine deletion of Palestine-related posts and a deep-seated pro-Israel bias. How do these policies shape public perception of the Gaza conflict?

Freedom of expression also under fire in Gaza war, rights expert says

United Nations News 

The report also examines social media platforms, which have been both a lifeline for communication to and from Gaza but also “major vectors” of disinformation, misinformation and hate speech. While Arabs, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are all targeted online, “most companies have shown a bias in their responses, as far as I could see…being more lenient regarding Israel and more restrictive about Palestinian expression,” she said. “From what I can see, it seems that inherently biased policies, opaque inconsistent content moderation, and heavy reliance on automated tools have led to this over-restrictive unbalanced content moderation.”

Israel is using surveillance Technology to subjugate and target Palestinians

Informed Comment 

Data collection and technology can have harmful applications, especially when used to monitor and subjugate marginalized people. This can be seen most clearly in how Israel has used technology in its war against Palestinians. Israel is using data collected from Palestinians to train AI-powered automated tools that have been deployed against Gaza and across the West Bank. Israeli AI-supercharged surveillance tools and spyware, including Pegasus, a malware program, and AI weaponry, including the Smart Shooter and Lavender, have received both condemnation and interest. Graduates of the Israeli military’s elite intelligence unit, Unit 8200, are so coveted by surveillance and military tech companies that there is a term “8200-to-tech pipeline”.

Meta’s Israel Policy Chief Tried to Suppress Pro-Palestinian Instagram Posts

The Intercept

A former senior Israeli government official now working as Meta’s Israel policy chief personally pushed for the censorship of Instagram accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine — a group that has played a leading role in organizing campus protests against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Internal policy discussions reviewed by The Intercept show Jordana Cutler, Meta’s Israel & the Jewish Diaspora policy chief, used the company’s content escalation channels to flag for review at least four SJP posts, as well as other content expressing stances contrary to Israel’s foreign policy. When flagging SJP posts, Cutler repeatedly invoked Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, which bars users from freely discussing a secret list of thousands of blacklisted entities. The Dangerous Organizations policy restricts “glorification” of those on the blacklist, but is supposed to allow for “social and political discourse” and “commentary.”