How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories

Published On Dec 17, 2024, 7:22 PM

The article discusses the drastic reduction in audience engagement for Palestinian news outlets on Facebook since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza conflict in October 2023, which saw a 77% drop in engagement. In contrast, Israeli news outlets experienced a significant increase in engagement, approximately 37%. The decline in visibility for Palestinian content has raised concerns about potential bias and shadow-banning by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Internal documents hint at algorithm changes targeting Palestinian comments while responding to a perceived increase in hate speech. Despite Meta’s claims of no deliberate suppression, the situation raises pressing questions about freedom of speech and content moderation policies during conflict times.