Sada Social Center said it documented 92 violations against Palestinian digital content in January 2023, adding these violations were distributed among the majority of global social media platforms.
In its monthly report issued on Tuesday, Sada Social Center said it documented more than 95 digital violations on various social media platforms, where Palestinian accounts received a number of reports as violations of content policies. These violations caused restrictions on posting and access when publishing news related to Palestine and the deletion of dozens of accounts.
Despite the recommendations and outputs of reports that reveal Meta’s bias against Arabic content and its promise to stop its discriminatory policies, complaints about Meta’s targeting of Palestinian content are still at the forefront, with 79 violations, including 65 violations on Facebook, 13 on Instagram and one on WhatsApp.
Sada Social also documented 9 digital violations on Twitter and 4 violations on TikTok. As for YouTube, it deleted a channel last month for publishing Palestinian content.
Social media platforms continue to censor the Palestinian media by restricting and deleting journalists’ accounts for posting news related to the Palestinian cause, as the Center monitored 61 of the total violations against the accounts of journalists and news institutions, which represent more than 64% of all violations.
Sada Social Center said January witnessed an escalation of incitement against the Palestinians on official pages and accounts affiliated with the Israeli occupation government and its military in the occupied West Bank.
These incitements included threats and incitement to expel the Palestinians, demolish their homes, kill them, punish them, and abuse them.
The incitements also included attacks by thousands of accounts against Palestinian activists’ and influencers’ accounts on social media and campaigns to report against pages and accounts providing Palestinian content.
Sada Social Center said it documented in January an increase of hate speech and incitement against the Palestinians issued by Israeli settlers and leaders, the most prominent of which was the incitement to kill Palestinians during a deadly military raid by Israeli forces in Jenin on January 26.
Hate speech and incitement in the first month of the new year also targeted Palestinian female activists more, as the Israeli deputy mayor of Jerusalem incited against Jerusalemite activist Alaa al-Sous on Twitter, and settlers incited against the activist Hind al-Khudari on Twitter too.
Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid also received incitement over her denunciation of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
The center called upon all those who are proficient in the Hebrew language to report any content that includes hatred and incitement against the Palestinians on Israeli accounts, so that it can communicate with the platforms’ administrations to remove it.
Sada Social Center said it is still working to restore many accounts that are subject to harassment and ban.
It re-confirmed the need to report any violation of freedom of posting and restriction of the use of Internet space in Palestine.
The Center also confirmed the importance of documenting these violations based on the importance of being on digital platforms and conveying the Palestinian narrative like the rest of those around the world and respect for the freedom of expression and publication as a universal right guaranteed by all international conventions.
It is noteworthy that Sada Social Center is a Palestinian digital rights organization launched in 2017 to protect Palestinian narratives on social media platforms.
In 2020 only, the Center documented 1200 violations against Palestinian content, including 25 on Instagram, 10 on YouTube, 801 on Facebook, and 276 on Twitter.
However, in 2021, it documented 1593 violations against Palestinian content, including 174 on Instagram, 16 on YouTube, 853 on Facebook, and 445 on Twitter.
In 2022, Sada Social Center documented 1230 violations against Palestinian content, including 805 on Facebook, 165 on Instagram, 96 on Whatsapp, 52 on TikTok, 26 on YouTube, 68 on Twitter, 1 on SoundCloud, 11 on Clubhouse and 6 on Telegram.
