US social media firm Twitter blasted for censoring Palestinian public figures

On December 15, Twitter owner Elon Musk suspended the accounts of some journalists, including reporters from US newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Defending his decision, Musk claimed the journalists had breached the US social media company’s new rule about revealing people’s locations.

The suspensions were condemned by the journalists’ newspapers and other media organisations – even the European Union and the United Nations weighed in, saying the move set a dangerous precedent. A day later, Musk lifted the suspensions after running a poll in which respondents went against his preferred outcome.

But there had been no such global outrage two weeks earlier about the suspension of the account of Said Arikat, a veteran Palestinian journalist based in Washington, DC, on December 3.

He is the Washington bureau chief for the Jerusalem-based al-Quds, one of the most widely read Palestinian daily newspapers, and a mainstay of Department of State news briefings with his fiery questions about Palestine and the Arab region.

Asked whether he thought his suspension from Twitter was related to him being outspoken about Palestine, Arikat told Al Jazeera: “I believe it does. I can’t think of any other reason.

“I was hacked before the suspension, but that’s about it,” he said, adding that Twitter had cited that as the reason for suspending his account.

“Recently we witnessed some cases where Palestinian academics and journalists are censored on Twitter for different reasons,” said Mona Shtaya, advocacy and communications manager at 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, a Palestinian digital rights organisation.

Among the reasons offered by the platform were “violating community standards”, and some accounts were said to have been suspended “by mistake” or as a result of technical glitches, Shtaya said. But she believes that the unspoken reasons include a general increase in hate speech and incitement against Arabs, including Palestinians.

“Whatever the reasons behind this censorship, the result remains the same: imposing higher censorship over digital freedoms and rights, especially on oppressed people,” she told Al Jazeera.

In 2021, “social media platforms increased censorship of Palestinian content … 7amleh documented more than 1,000 violations across different platforms, with Facebook and Instagram atop the list of the most violating platforms”, said a report published by 7amleh.

In September 2022, a separate report produced by an independent consulting firm commissioned by Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – acknowledged there was bias in the platforms’ moderation practices, with significantly disproportionate consequences for the digital rights of Palestinians and Arabic-speaking users.

The report found that Meta’s practices violated Palestinians’ right to freedom of expression and assembly, political participation and non-discrimination.

Source: Al Jazeera

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