Meta has announced that that social media platform has locked out a popular Instagram account that supports Palestine.
The account @eye.on.palestine was no longer available as of Wednesday night as well as its backup account.
The main account, which has over 6 million followers, often posts pictures and videos from Gaza and has been highlighting what the Palestinian people have been experiencing amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in light of its conflict with Hamas.
According to The Guardian, the account was temporarily suspended last year for “not following” community guidelines despite reinstating the account later on.
“These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise, and we’re working to make contact with the account owners to make sure they have access,” Meta said in a statement.
A week ago, Instagram issued an apology for adding the word “terrorist” to several Palestinian user profiles, which came as a result of a bug. At the time, users translated bios that included the word “Palestinian” written in English on their profile, the Palestinian flag emoji, and the word alhamdulillah written in Arabic, which would read out as “Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom,” when auto-translated to English.
After resolving the issue, the auto-translation now reads: “Thank God.”
“We fixed a problem that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations in some of our products. We sincerely apologize that this happened,” a Meta spokesperson told The Guardian.
In recent weeks, Instagram has been by users of censoring and shadow-banning posts supporting Palestinians. The platform faced a similar backlash during Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2021.
“We’ve uncovered a disturbing pattern of silenced Palestinian voices and free expression, mainly across Meta’s platforms. Palestinian content is unfairly targeted, while hate speech and incitement against Palestinians go largely unchecked,” Nadim Nashif, the director of the social media group director of the watchdog group 7amleh, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement. said.
“Censorship is rampant, with reach limitations, takedowns, and stifling restrictions on media outlets, journalists, and influencers, notably the account Eye on Palestine. This crackdown prevents the world from hearing the truth from the ground.”
The group, which has been monitoring cases related to the silencing of Palestinian voices, has recorded more than 238 censorship cases in the past several weeks.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Leon Neal / Staff
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
