A new report details Meta’s systematic suppression of Palestinian digital content.
“The Platformicide of Palestine 2021–2025” was put together by 7amleh in partnership with Dr. Fabio Cristiano of Utrecht University. The report examines 3,520 cases of suppression, and in almost 70% of those cases, users were not clearly informed what policies they had violated.
The document shows that there was an uptick in digital violations in the aftermath of October 7, amid the genocide in Gaza. This crackdown took place “precisely at a time when Palestinians needed platforms the most” notes Cristiano.
According to the report, Meta relies on the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI) policy, which was originally developed to address terrorism, to target content that warrants removal. Before the genocide began, the company made changes to allow discussion of certain people and organizations in news reporting. However, in December 2023, they enlarged the scope of DOI enforcement.
“By widening the range of actions sanctionable with moderation under DOI, Meta effectively rigidified their moderation policy language: in practice, their DOI policy updates during the genocide mean that more content will be more heavily moderated, which therefore increases scrutiny on accounts discussing conflict-related issues,” the authors note. “It is interesting to account for these policy changes in our analysis of the DOI policy application to the cases we analyzed. Our analysis reveals that DOI consistently remained the predominant policy for moderating Palestinian content both before and after October 7.”
The report also explains how Meta openly conflates Zionism with Judaism in many cases and suppresses content for allegedly targeting a protected group. In July 2024, Meta unveiled a new policy regarding “Zionism” and said it would begin removing “speech targeting ‘Zionists’ in several areas where our process showed that the speech tends to be used to refer to Jews and Israelis with dehumanizing comparisons, calls for harm, or denials of existence.”
The report highlights an account that was suspended after it posted clip of Israeli historian Ilan Pappe speaking. “The Palestinians are asking for equal citizenship, it is up to the Jews to do the same,” says Pappe. The story was captioned with “Are we? Zio’s want supremacy and nothing else,” which was apparently viewed as a dehumanizing or exclusionary reference.
7amleh is calling on Meta to undertake a human rights audit of its moderation systems relating to Palestine, reform its DOI policy, strengthen protections for journalism and public-interest content, improve Arabic-language moderation, increase transparency regarding its moderation decisions.
“Palestinians increasingly rely on digital platforms to document violations, share information, preserve collective memory, and advocate for their rights,” said Nadim Nashif, Founder and Executive Director of 7amleh. “This research demonstrates that the challenges facing Palestinian content are not limited to isolated incidents of censorship. They reflect deeper structural bias and racism within Meta’s moderation systems that continue to undermine Palestinian digital rights, restrict access to information, and weaken civic space online.”
Michigan Indictments
Eight protesters have been indicted for allegedly intimidating University of Michigan leaders amid a campaign aimed at pushing the school to divest from Israel.
Six of the activists are current university students. They’ve been charged with conspiracy to transmit a threat, conspiracy to tamper with a witness, and destruction of property.
The defendants allegedly vandalized the homes of school president Santa Ono, university regents, and local businesses. According to the indictment, they also spray-painted pro-Palestine slogans and, on one occasion, threw a stink bomb into a house.
“The defendants and unindicted conspirators orchestrated detailed plans,” reads the indictment. “Their criminal activity included spray-painting threats, breaking windows and throwing glass jars filled with noxious chemicals into family homes. They marked their victims with threatening symbols used by Hamas, including red inverted triangles and red handprints. They used the internet and social media to broadcast their message to ensure their threats and commitment to continuing criminal activity were heard by their victims and others who support Israel.”
“They deliberately chose the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack to engage in some of their most visible criminal acts,” declared a tweet from FBI Director Kash Patel.
Attorneys from the Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice are representing the protesters.
“For decades, students, alumni, workers, and community members have called on the University of Michigan to divest from Israel and to defend the human rights of Palestinians,” said Liz Jacob, a staff attorney at the organization, in a statement. “Yet, in the last three years protesters who speak out against genocide have been met with weaponized student discipline, termination and permanent blacklisting from employment, campus-wide trespass bans, private security surveillance, and prosecutions by the Michigan Attorney General that have had all charges dismissed. And now, Michigan protesters advocating for human rights are facing repression at the highest levels from the Trump administration.”
“The escalating repression and criminalization of Palestine solidarity protesters undermines all of our rights to free speech, protest, and dissent,” she continued.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has also issued a statement expressing concerns about the indictment.
“A criminal indictment should identify alleged criminal acts—not create the impression that constitutionally protected viewpoints or participation in peaceful demonstrations somehow provide evidence of criminal intent,” it reads. “The government should be exceptionally careful not to blur the line between alleged unlawful conduct and lawful political expression. When an indictment incorporates extensive references to protected advocacy, there is a legitimate concern that it may sweep constitutionally protected speech into the narrative of criminal prosecution in a manner that is both inappropriate and unnecessary.”
If convicted, the protesters could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Further Reading
- The Guardian: Palestine Action ban will be overturned, group’s co-founder vows
- City Journal: Behind the Park Slope Food Co-op’s Vote to Boycott Israel
- Democracy Now: Trita Parsi on What May Be in the U.S.-Iran Peace Deal & Being Threatened with Deportation
- Detroit News: Ex-Abdul El-Sayed campaign staffer charged in UM threat case
- Kera News: Pro-Palestinian protestors sue UT Dallas leaders, police officers over alleged punishment
