Social media is a powerful place. It allows us to form our opinions, choose sides and raise our voices for something that we believe in, care deeply for or feel like it should be known to everyone out there. As much as people regard social media as a place for toxicity and sometimes it is. It is also the place where we individuals can find our voice on and project important things on the platform. This is the main power that social media has given us, to speak our minds out in the open without any restrictions, but what if some social media platforms restrict you from raising your voice out?
With the on-going recent events in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestine, many people have chosen to speak about it. Like the same way George Floyd got justice because of his incident getting there on every social media platform shared by everyone, people are hoping that the same can happen for the people of Palestine.
With the on-going recent events in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestine, many people have chosen to speak about it. Like the same way George Floyd got justice because of his incident getting there on every social media platform shared by everyone, people are hoping that the same can happen for the people of Palestine.
There have been a lot of posts made to educate people all over the world about the happenings of Palestine, but recently it has come to notice that big social media giants particular Instagram and Twitter that boasts a large number of users and activists have actually deleted a lot of posts related to these recent series of events. People were of course outraged when they got to know about this because this step was not a good move from a social media platform that is supposed to stay neutral and allow people to voice out their opinions freely.
7amleh, which is a non-profit organization and The Arab Centre for Social Media Advancement that aims at helping people use digital tools for building their own media campaigns and to defend their rights through social media, received around more than 200 complaints about these deleted posts and accounts that got suspended related to postings about Sheikh Jarrah. These posts were about these recent happenings and about how Palestinians are being forced down out of their own homes. Instagram and Twitter have said that such posts and accounts got deleted due to technical errors, but critics think that there might be more than that as two social media platforms that are also two of the most used platforms out there have technicalities, discriminatory behavior, and algorithm biasedness, together? And that too at something as sensitive as this?
Palestinians are looking at social media platform as their last resort as they are being forcefully evicted from their own homes by Jewish settlers. They took on their protests to social media but they got removed or blocked. Instagram has even apologized for this and has said that the posts will go up again soon but this issue hasn’t been solved yet. Instagram needs to level up its game not by introducing new features but to allow its users the basic right of defending themselves by using their power which these platforms have given them, themselves.
Read next: Twitter receives thousands of responses over the rules for moderating world leaders on its platform
.@instagram has limited posts with hashtag #Jerusalem #الاقصي pic.twitter.com/zuT7U9qDWv
— ود البيه (@khalidalbaih) May 7, 2021
❗️According to #Hashtag Palestine 2020 report!
— 7amleh حملة (@7amleh) May 10, 2021
Here is a summary of the violations made by Technology Companies against Palestinian digital rights.
Check out the full report: https://t.co/bUqbyD0OaF #SaveSheikhJarrah #SavePalestine pic.twitter.com/i564fuT9zJ
Palestinians are looking at social media platform as their last resort as they are being forcefully evicted from their own homes by Jewish settlers. They took on their protests to social media but they got removed or blocked. Instagram has even apologized for this and has said that the posts will go up again soon but this issue hasn’t been solved yet. Instagram needs to level up its game not by introducing new features but to allow its users the basic right of defending themselves by using their power which these platforms have given them, themselves.
Read next: Twitter receives thousands of responses over the rules for moderating world leaders on its platform
