The American company Meta is silencing more and more content in support of Palestine on the social networks Facebook and Instagram, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Thursday.
HRW published a report on the technology group’s “systematic censorship” of this type of content since the beginning of the war in Gaza on October 7.
The report “documents a pattern of improper removal and suppression of protected speech, including peaceful expression in support of Palestine and public debate on Palestinian human rights,” HRW noted.
Human Rights Watch found “overreliance on automated tools to moderate content and undue government influence over content removal” on both social networks owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s company.
Deborah Brown, acting deputy director of technology and human rights at Human Rights Watch, defended in the statement that “social media is an essential platform for people to bear witness and speak out against abuses, while Meta’s censorship is contributing to erase the suffering of the Palestinians.
The organization reviewed 1,050 cases of online “censorship” in more than 60 countries, identifying six key patterns. These are removal of content, suspension or deletion of accounts, inability to interact with content, inability to follow or tag accounts, restrictions on the use of features such as Instagram and Facebook Live and ‘shadow ban’, a significant decrease in the visibility of publications or accounts.
In more than 300 cases, users were unable to file a claim for deletion of content or accounts because the mechanism for doing so did not work properly, according to HRW.
In hundreds of cases, Meta invoked its ‘Dangerous Organizations and Individuals’ policy, which incorporates lists of terrorist organizations developed in the United States, and “misapplied its policies on violent content,” it added.
In addition to having “inconsistently” applied its policy on relevant content, removing dozens of posts that document newsworthy cases of deaths and injuries among Palestinians, according to Human Rights Watch.
“Meta must align its content moderation policies and practices with international human rights standards, ensuring that decisions to remove content are transparent, consistent and not overly broad or biased,” the organization claimed.
“It should start by reviewing its dangerous organizations and individuals policy to make it consistent with international human rights standards,” he added.
The organization also urged the American group to “audit” its policy on relevant content to ensure that it does not eliminate those of “public interest” and “act with due diligence on the impact on human rights of temporary changes in its recommendation algorithms.” ” which he introduced after the outbreak of Israel’s war against the Islamist group Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
