MEND STATEMENT: Meta’s Silencing of Pro-Palestine Voices is a Mark of Deep Shame Upon the Social Media Giant

MEND is greatly concerned by Human Rights Watch’s new report which accuses Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta of “systematic and grave” censorship of pro-Palestine content.

Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) report, Meta’s Broken Promises, accuses the social media giant of “silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook.” HRW found that since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in early October, “peaceful” content, primarily originating from English-speaking countries, has been subject to censorship of varying forms.

While the methods used to purge pro-Palestine voices have ranged from outright removal of posts, to the permanent disabling of accounts and so-called “shadow banning,” the final result is all the same: to make it increasingly difficult to expose Israeli propaganda and spread awareness about the nightmarish plight of the Palestinian people, over 20,000 of whom have now been massacred in Gaza. MEND also takes note that this is far from being the first time Meta has been accused by human rights groups of sequestering pro-Palestine sentiment.

MEND therefore calls upon the British government to demand that Meta comply with international and domestic human rights legislation on freedom of speech, which equally guarantees that right for everyone, and which cannot be selectively applied according to the political or philosophical beliefs of a person/group of people.