Meta, introduced in October 2021 and the parent company of
Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has been making the news. However, this
time, it is not for the new technology they are building, but under scrutiny
for allegedly deleting and censoring thousands of contents relating to
Palestine.
اضافة اعلان
Since October 7, 2023, many of Meta’s users have shared that they
are experiencing shadow bans on their accounts or getting messages about
sharing sensitive content. They are also asked if they want to share it anyway.
Additionally, users are getting messages that pop up when sharing content,
indicating that some of the keywords have been used before.
What actually happened to @eye.on.palestineIn the latest accusations, a popular pro-Palestine account,
@eye.on.palestine, which had more than six million followers on Instagram, went
dark on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. The account, a civilian watchdog page,
sometimes uses unverified material to share what is going on in Palestine. Many
users went to X and accused Meta of anti-Palestinian censorship. However, Meta
shared in an announcement, "These accounts were initially locked for
security reasons after signs of compromise, and we’re working to make contact
with the account owners to ensure they have access," Meta spokesperson
Andy Stone said in a statement. He continued, "We did not disable these
accounts because of any content they were sharing." On Thursday, October
26, 2023, @eye.on.palestine had returned.
Meta and Google withdrew from Web Summit
On October 23, 2023, Google and Meta made headlines again after
their withdrawal from the Web Summit, following remarks from its founder, Paddy
Cosgrave, regarding Israel. Cosgrave criticized Western support for Israel,
accused it of war crimes, and his comments made it on X, formerly known as
Twitter. In response, he later resigned from the Web Summit and shared that he
acknowledges the hurt caused by his comments on Israel. Web Summit, one of the
world’s largest technology conferences, faces potential reputational damage,
while Google and Meta sent messages about wanting to stay neutral and sensitive
in global conflict discussions.
However, with all the back and forth on what is happening, and as
Gaza faced a complete telecommunication blackout, many social media users are
now under even more scrutiny for sharing misinformation that could get
reported.
According to social media expert, Khaled Al-Ahmad, the Facebook
algorithm works by collecting posts and advertisements that address the topic
the user will write about. It employs its machines and techniques to understand
the nature of the content for each user, he told Jordan News. He shared,
"In the past, Israel filed a case against Facebook, claiming that its
algorithm helps the Palestinians organize and carry out terrorist acts. For
example, terms such as Al-Aqsa, Hamas, and Palestine are considered a real
danger to Israel. They were able to convince the company and now have companies
that report everything they claim." If users find these terms, they can
manually report the page and its comments, which Facebook allows.
The Arab world could boycott advertisementsHe also added that with the current allegations and scrutiny Meta
is under, the Arab world has started to boycott advertisements on platforms
that "clearly support the occupation." According to a report from
eMarketer, the Arab world is expected to spend $2.7 billion on Meta advertising
in 2023, representing annual growth of 25.8 percent. He said, "If such a
boycott is implemented, it will cause significant losses to the company and
force it to change its policy. Additionally, there may be other platforms and
markets replacing Meta during this difficult period."
Digital restrictions make the user frustrated
Meanwhile, the dean of science and information technology at
Al-Zaytouna University, Ayesh Al-Hroob, told Jordan News that the role
that the Meta platform should play is to accept all views. Hroob added, "I
published three posts that were canceled, and then my account was restricted.
We must have our platforms and have strong policies, and therefore our opinion
will be imposed and heard." He said digital restrictions make the user
frustrated, and this could lead to more growing tensions for people to get their
voices heard.
Furthermore, Oraib Al-Rentawi told Jordan News that if there
are alleged censorships from Meta, people will go to Twitter and TikTok instead
of Facebook.
Experiments are the best proof
There has been a digital migration to these platforms. Information
technology expert Emran Al-Salem told Jordan News that Meta claims that
it has freedom of expression on its platforms, but experiments are the best
proof. A group of people conducted an experiment by creating pages with Arabic
and Israeli titles and posting the same content. The result was that the Arab
side had their pages blocked, while the Israeli side did not. However, all of
this is not confirmed and is speculative. He also added that "artificial
intelligence systems were part of this war. Since they claim that these systems
are independent, it turns out that they are clearly biased. We can test this by
asking questions or writing about Israel, as it falsifies information."
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