RAMALLAH, Sunday, January 10, 2021 (WAFA) – Palestinian social media, activists, and supporters of the Palestinian cause concluded yesterday a two-hour boycott of Facebook in protest of the latter's censorship of the Palestinian content on its platform and bias for the Israeli occupation.

The two-hour pause from 5pm to 7pm (Jerusalem time) saw many Palestinian activists and pages stop posting on Facebook while tweeting on other platforms using the hashtag #FBCensorsPalestine to voice their discontent over the Facebook policies and double standards

The activity was called for by the Palestinian Content Protection Initiative (PCPI), a recently formed youth initiative and non-governmental organization, which said that the reason behind the campaign was that the administrations of social media websites have been pursuing, targeting and restricting the publishing and access of Palestinian pages and accounts, and in full coordination with the Israeli occupation government.

PCPI said the campaign was attended by 6 satellite channels, 10 local radio stations, 20 news agencies and networks, and 18 Palestinian institutions and initiatives, in addition to dozens of Palestinian platforms on Facebook, Arab pages, influencers, and media professionals.

The non-governmental organization has pointed out that the Facebook crackdown has even expanded further to removing and blocking pages and restricting the access to the publications of media pages and news networks. Specialized centers have monitored a 50 percent drop in access.

The activists stressed on their tweets that Facebook has been stifling the Palestinian voices by deactivating the accounts of Palestinians in coordination with the Israeli occupation government, on the pretext of preventing Palestinian “incitement”.

M.N