Weekly Update on Palestinian Digital Rights

7amleh Releases New Report: "Erased and Suppressed: Palestinian Testimonies of Meta's Censorship"

7amleh

Palestinian Testimonies of Meta's Censorship". The report highlights direct testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists, and media outlets who have faced Meta's discriminatory practices. It exposes Meta's approach to silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative, particularly during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The report features 20 documented testimonies detailing Palestinian users’ experiences, including the deletion of posts, account suspensions, and restricted audience reach. These policies have caused significant economic and professional losses, in addition to psychological, social, and political harms due to the repeated violations of Palestinian users’ digital rights.

Reel resistance: Netflix’s removal of Palestinian films adds to the erasure of Palestine

The conversation

Netflix faces calls for a boycott after it removed its “Palestinian Stories” collection this October. This includes approximately 24 films. Netflix cited the expiration of three-year licences as the reason for pulling the films from the collection. Nonetheless, some viewers were outraged and almost 12,000 people signed a CodePink petition calling on Netflix to reinstate the films. At a time when Palestinians are facing what scholars, United Nations experts and Amnesty International are calling a genocide, Netflix’s move could be seen as a silencing of Palestinian narratives. The disappearance of these films from Netflix at this moment has deeper implications. The removal of almost all films in this category represents a significant act of cultural erasure and anti-Palestinian racism.

Meta censorship is having a 'devastating' impact on Palestinian news sources

Middle East Eye 

Meta's policy of censorship is having a "devastating" impact on Palestinians, according to a new report by a prominent Arab media watchdog. The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, also known as 7amleh, collected 20 first-hand testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who have experienced the tech conglomerate's discriminatory practices. Since October 2023, with the start of Israel's assault on Gaza, Meta has been accused of censoring Palestinian content and groups on Facebook and Instagram, two of the social media platforms it owns. The testimonies collected by 7amleh highlight the closure and shadow-banning of community pages, local media outlets and influencer accounts, leading to a steep decline in engagement. According to 7amleh, more than 15 million posts in Hebrew inciting against Palestinians have been documented across social media platforms since October 2023.

Israel to deploy automated weapons in occupied West Bank, report says

Middle East Eye 

The Israeli military is preparing to deploy remotely controlled automated weapons across occupied West Bank checkpoints to target Palestinians, according to a report by the Israeli Army Radio on Sunday. The system, named "Roeh-Yoreh" ("See-Fires"), is an advanced weaponry structure developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It includes a tower with sophisticated surveillance equipment and a remote-controlled lethal fire mechanism. Since its introduction into the Israeli military arsenal in 2008, the system has been exclusively used in Gaza, where it was deployed along the security fence to target Palestinians approaching the barrier. According to Army Radio, the move to use the system in the West Bank comes despite its limited effectiveness in repelling the Hamas-led 7 October attacks out of Gaza. In the early hours of the assault, Hamas used drones to hit the tower-mounted weapons, disabling them with ease and allowing fighters to cross the boundary into Israel.

How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories

BBC

Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war, according to BBC research. In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, we found that newsrooms in the Palestinian territories - in Gaza and the West Bank - had suffered a steep drop in audience engagement since October 2023. The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram - another Meta-owned platform - increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023. Meta - the owner of Facebook - says that any implication that it deliberately suppressed particular voices is "unequivocally false".