Digital Rights Weekly Update: 31 Oct - 6 Nov

Civil Society Express Concern over the Impending Sale of U.S. TikTok

7amleh

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned about the sale of U.S. TikTok. In 2024, when congressional action announced a wholesale ban of the platform in the United States, 7amleh issued a statement of concern, and many of the underlying causes for concern remain. We maintain that this sale does not improve data protection and privacy for TikTok users, and will furthermore harm users’ access to information and their freedom of expression, specifically with regards to Palestine, and potentially serve to support disinformation campaigns about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

AI Hasbara: Israel Pours Millions Into U.S. Influence Efforts, Targeting Evangelicals in Churches and ChatGPT

Haaretz

The Israeli government has signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to rehabilitate Israel's standing in American public opinion, both online and offline. Amid a sharp drop in support from the conservative right, Israel has hired firms to conduct not just "hasbara [public diplomacy] campaigns" but also campaigns targeting millions of Christian churchgoers, bot networks to amplify pro-Israel messages online, and efforts to influence both search results and the responses given by popular AI services like ChatGPT.

YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations

The Intercept

A documentary featuring mothers surviving Israel’s genocide in Gaza. A video investigation uncovering Israel’s role in the killing of a Palestinian American journalist. Another video revealing Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. YouTube surreptitiously deleted all these videos in early October by wiping the accounts that posted them from its website, along with their channels’ archives. The accounts belonged to three prominent Palestinian human rights groups: Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

How anti-Palestinian racism shapes perceptions of Gaza war

DW

Anti-Palestinian bias is fueled by racist media coverage, which in turn promotes anti-Palestinian bias, the interviewed experts say. Palestinian researcher Hanan Sahmoud highlights how European media have often dehumanized and "depicted Palestinians as savages." This is regularly seen in comments under news stories about Gaza shared on social media. DW also observed this on its social accounts, as seen in the screenshot below. The experts agree that such dehumanization reduces empathy towards others. "All of this leads to what is known as an empathy gap, which in turn leads to a justification for unequal treatment," said El Idrissi. There are also examples of prominent Israeli officials using dehumanizing terminology to describe Palestinians. Two days after the October 7, 2023, attacks, Yoav Gallant, then Israel's defense minister, said, "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly."