[ad_1]
One of the most prominent pro-Palestine accounts, with more than six million followers on Instagram, has been blocked by Meta and is currently inaccessible to its followers.
The Eye on Palestine account (@eye.on.palestine) and its official backup (@eye.on.palestine2) were not available on the app as of Wednesday. The backup account was created to protect the original page and fight against shadow bana problem faced by Instagram users who share pro-Palestinian content since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
When searched, the pages displayed the words: “Sorry, this page is not available.”
Meta told Mashable in a statement that the account was locked for security reasons and can now be reactivated by its owners: “These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise. We have helped account owners recover access and now you can reactivate your account.”
At the time of writing, both accounts are not yet available.
Earlier today, Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, reposted a message on X from journalist Yashar Ali, who shared Meta’s statement on the situation. Ali wrote that he received a statement from Meta, also explaining that the accounts were “initially blocked for security reasons after signs of compromise.” Meta said he did not disable these accounts because of “any content they were sharing.”
The tweet may have been deleted.
The Eye on Palestine account was known for sharing valuable first-hand accounts about the situation in Gaza.
While Meta says the Eye on Palestine account, along with several others, has not been deleted for its sentiments, many social media users remain skeptical. This is the latest incident of censorship and alleged bias against pro-Palestinian messages on Meta platforms.
The tweet may have been deleted.
The tweet may have been deleted.
The tweet may have been deleted.
This week, the same account on X was deleted. The account was previously active on October 13.
On Instagram, @eye.on.palestine is unreachable.
Credit: Screenshot/Instagram.
X also appears to have deleted the account.
Credit: Screenshot / X.
The platforms have faced several accusations of suppressing stories coming from Gaza and pro-Palestinian voices. As reported by Mashable, dozens of Instagram users faced low visibility and censorship when sharing content about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or messages of express support for Palestine. Some users told Mashable that links meant to donate to Gaza were broken; others complained of fewer than ten views on a story that had been uploaded for hours. Accounts were blocked and posts deleted.
Since then, many others have reported moments of digital suppression and outright bias. Following an explosion at al-Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip, users discovered that their posts about civilian casualties were removed from Instagram and Facebook for violating their policy on “nudity or sexual activity.” In another case, Instagram apologized for mistranslating people’s biographies to include the word “terrorist”when said biographies included Arabic words and/or the Palestinian flag.
[ad_2]
Source link
