Ankara, 29 May 2024, (GNP): On Instagram, users who have attempted to share content about Gaza on their stories often find themselves either unable to upload or facing removal of their posts. Additionally, they lose all followers and are asked to recreate their accounts from scratch.
Israeli forces killed over 35 people in Rafah on Sunday night, Instagram has subtly aligned with the Zionist state, attempting to conceal the massacres happening in what is considered the last “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
Consider Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) presenter Nadja Muftic (@nadja_muftic). Although her Instagram account still displays 953 posts, accumulated over her long-term use of the app, she now has zero followers and follows no one after posting content critical of Israel’s latest assault on Rafah.
An error message apologises insincerely at the bottom of her phone’s screen: “We’re sorry, but something went wrong. Please try again.”
Nadja Muftic has shared another screenshot with TRT World showing Instagram has removed her recently shared video: “It looks like you shared or sent a video that shows graphic violence”, the page says, while remarking that “Your video goes against our Community Standards on graphic violence.”
User @ifurkantr faced even worse consequences, ending up with zero posts, zero followers, and zero following. An apologetic error message at the bottom of his screen stated “something went wrong” and asked him to “try again.” He had shared a story about Palestine and was subsequently censored by Instagram’s content oversight team.
TRT’s Global Brand and Growth Director, Riyaad Minty (@riyaadm), was not immune to Instagram’s heavy-handed approach either. He too lost his followers and those he followed, receiving the same error message.
Upload failed
When he tried to upload a Palestine-related video to Instagram stories, he was outright rejected, receiving a red error message stating “Upload failed” and offering to delete the content to restore peace.
This is not the first time Meta and its apps have been accused of censoring pro-Palestinian content. Human Rights Watch, among others, has documented the extensive impact on content under the guise of Meta’s Community Standards.
Human Rights Watch has, in December 2023, published a 51-page report on the subject, titled “Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook” strongly criticising the social media behemoth for its censorship practices.
Parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, is aligning with the Israeli state’s characterization of Hamas’ incursion into Israel on October 7, 2023, as a ‘Terrorist Attack.’
Using this as a pretext, Meta has classified Hamas under its ‘Dangerous Organizations and Individuals’ list, allowing it to freely censor Palestine-related content under this broad terminology.
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Israel’s war on Gaza has been ongoing for more than seven months, and people speaking out against Tel Aviv’s mass murders and destruction in the besieged enclave are using every means available to make their voices heard.
Many users believe that Instagram would be one of the most useful tools to discuss what’s happening in Palestine.
However, an increasing number of users posting about Israel’s war on Gaza—which many students, democratic nations, and conscientious individuals widely consider a “genocide” aimed at terminating all Palestinian presence—have found that their content has disappeared or, worse, their accounts have been suspended.
