RAMALLAH, February 21, 2018 (WAFA) – Palestinian Facebook users have started a new campaign that aims to target Facebook’s policy against Palestinian content and pages.
The campaign, which will be go by the hashtag “FBfightsPalestine,” is set to start on Wednesday at 8:00PM, and Palestinian users will be using that hashtag in posts protesting the social network site’s policy to delete Palestinian content allegedly for including “hate speech and incitement” against Israelis.
Those in charge of organizing the campaign said it aims to raise awareness on the approach Facebook is taking regarding censoring Palestinian content under Israeli pressure and the amount of violations it has committed as a result of this measure.
They said that further steps may include legal action against Facebook through international organizations related to the freedom of speech and other organizations related to freedom on social media sites.
Facebook censorship of Palestinian content following pressure from Israel was also raised during a meeting held this week at the European Parliament that hosted Nasser Abu Baker, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
Participants in the event initiated by the International Federation of Journalists that focused on escalation of Israeli attacks against Palestinian journalists and hosted by European Parliament members Marie-Christine Vergiat and Neoklis Sylikiotis expressed concern about cooperation between Facebook and the government of Israel, which has resulted in the closure of 158 accounts of Palestinians in 2017.
Sylikiotis, chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Palestine (DPAL), said the issues raised in the meeting will be brought before the European Parliament for wider discussion.
#FBfightsPalestine campaign started after Facebook deleted posts and pages that included content about Ahmad Jarrar, a Palestinian man alleged to have been responsible for the drive-by fatal shooting of an Israeli settler in the West Bank last month and who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers a month later in a wide-scale Israeli army manhunt that resulted in the army murdering a relative and demolition of four homes that belonged to his extended family.
K.T./M.K.
