Meta claims it's a bug after reports of being shadowbanned for pro-Palestinian posts on Instagram and Facebook
Due to a large-scale clash between Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist organization in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and Israel, images of the fighting and damage caused by both groups are being spread extensively on social media. However, many users who support Palestine have complained that pro-Palestinian posts about the situation in the Gaza Strip are blocked on Instagram and Facebook. In response, Meta announced that the deletion of the post was a glitch.
Social Media Users Accuse Facebook, Instagram of Suppressing Pro-Palestinian Posts - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-war-social-media.html
Journalists & Activists Use Humor To Bypass Meta's Alleged Shadow-Banning Amid The Conflict - DeadAnt
https://deadant.co/journalists-activists-use-humour-to-bypass-metas-alleged-shadow-banning-amid-the-israel-palestine-conflict/
Instagram, TikTok 'shadow ban' pro-Palestine users, reports
https://www.newarab.com/news/instagram-tiktok-shadow-ban-pro-palestine-users-reports
On social media, when certain content is no longer found when searched for, or is no longer displayed in feeds, etc., this is called a 'shadowban.'
In the conflict between Palestine and Israel, a lot of information is shared, but some users say that ``messages that call for damage in Palestine and support for Palestinian civilians are being intensively shadowbanned.'' Multiple media outlets have reported that this has been pointed out one after another.
The Hampton Institute, a think tank, said in a post on X, ``Instagram and Facebook actively block posts about Israeli and Palestinian history, often disguising it as ``technical difficulties.''
Instagram and Facebook are actively blocking posts about the *factual* history of Israel/Palestine, sometimes cloaking it as 'technical difficulty.'
— Hampton Institute (@HamptonThink) October 15, 2023
YouTube is deleting material that talks about the daily life in Gaza city over the past several decades.
In addition, according to the UK-based pan-Arab news site The New Arab, TikTok creators also claim that ``videos containing content supporting Palestine have been deleted.''
To combat shadowbans, social media users try to fool the platforms' automatic checks by attaching irrelevant images to their posts or mixing in intentional misspellings when mentioning the Gaza Strip or Palestine. is.
View this post on Instagram
In response to claims that pro-Palestinian posts are being heavily shadowbanned, Meta explains that the problem is due to a bug unrelated to the content of the posts.
'We've identified a bug that affects all Stories that reshare Reels and Feed posts,' said Andy Stone, Director of Communications at Meta. This bug affected accounts equally around the world and had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content. We promptly corrected the issue.'
Meta statement on concerns about the visibility of Stories.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 15, 2023
“We identified a bug impacting all Stories that re-shared Reels and Feed posts, meaning they weren't showing up properly in people's Stories tray, leading to significantly reduced reach. This bug affected accounts…
