The shadowbanned post


The media, however it may be, continues to play a powerful role in times of war—whether with the old-fashioned methods used by ages past or with new media in the present day. Because now we are living in the era of "new media," viewer-to-producer interaction has changed. Previously, only professionals who worked for the radio, TV, or newspaper business were able to create the content. The public only received the content without interacting or shaping it. Media gave the message and the story. Nowadays, the situation is not the same. We are in a digital media age, and audience members are not just viewers but active agents. 

Social media, specifically, has exhibited its influential, both positive and negative, impact on citizens' belief system of what happens, especially with individuals far away and otherwise detached. Before, conflicts or wars were covered on just one side. Today, however, people's perceptions and opinions are changing. They're being exposed to images and information they once didn't know—some things they'd never even heard of. Why? Because today anyone can report on what they see or go through. Sometimes it's a regular person reporting on what's happening around them. Other times, it's an influencer who's concerned about a cause and uses their voice to create awareness. A good example is the Al-Aqsa Flood fight. The majority used social media sites to upload regarding the cause. Their uploads spread significantly, especially on Instagram. This led to trending movements and demonstrations in countries and universities never seen before—just because of what they were watching online.

According to British website Leeds Journal, "Social media websites are among the most significant tools for organizing and publicizing protests in the internet era. The London Palestinian protest movement made extensive use of websites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Protestors used the websites to publish live updates, videos, and photos from the protests."

This strong online presence helped the movement in connecting with an international audience and drawing support from people worldwide who are interested in the Palestine issue. Hash tags like #FreePalestine and #LondonProtest were used to draw attention to the protests as well as to invite others to join.

Celebrities, influencers, and public personalities also used their social media accounts to show solidarity, which made the protests even more visible. Public awareness and interest in the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict thus increased.

Photos from pro-Palestine demonstrations in London after the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood

Similarly, Al Jazeera English said that on November 11, hundreds of thousands of people participated in a solidarity march with Palestine in central London. They chanted slogans like "Stop bombing Gaza" and "Ceasefire now." Social media—especially Instagram and viral hashtags—played a crucial role in bringing people together and making the message known.

Source: Al Jazeera

المصدر: موقع الجزيرة

المصدر: موقع الجزيرة

Palestine — the truth that doesn’t fit the media empires.

     ​We are now living in an age where Western countries have control over social media platforms—they create them, set the rules, and make the policies. Because there is unwavering and unambiguous conflict between the ideas and ideals spread by the West and what indeed happened with regards to the Palestinian people, especially since the official occupation of 1948, every voice that could possibly change the opinion of the masses about the conflict is deemed a threat.
If something manages to reveal the real violence and occupation crimes—merely by telling the truth, not lying—even the authorities try to repress it. They don't wish the world to see the true face of the occupation, lest it turn everything topsy-turvy and reveal the ugly reality behind the facade they try to hide.
They are afraid of losing the illusory "legitimacy" they relentlessly produce for this regime via relentless propaganda efforts, all with the goal of keeping its reputation clean in the eyes of people on the planet.
      One of the biggest threats to their fake image is when people start to see the truth—truth that belies the message the occupation still attempts to spread. But they do not show this truth in a fair or balanced manner, because they fear it might show the violent and criminal face of the occupation to the world. They are afraid that people will question the existence, future, and so-called "legitimacy" of this regime.
Social media platforms, and especially Instagram, are now among the main arenas where media and stories clash. Instagram is one of the major actors in this battlefield. Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, its behavior has shown a clear and overt bias—something that will be confirmed based on real examples and numbers in the coming sections. 

   

To this aim, a piece on Al Jazeera English titled "Are Big Social Media Companies Censoring Pro-Palestinian Voices During Israel's War?" had quoted that a number of users accused Instagram, which is a Meta company, of unfairly deleting posts referring to Palestine because they violated "community guidelines."Other users included that their Instagram stories were hidden just because they shared information about pro-Palestinian marches in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Others also mentioned that the word "terrorist" was appended alongside their Instagram bios, and this caused a lot of distress.

Testimonies about digital violence

At the end of last week, Thomas Madens, a filmmaker and activist living in Belgium, noticed something strange. A video he posted about Palestine—with the word “genocide” in it—suddenly stopped getting views after it had started to go viral.

“I thought I was going to reach millions of views, but the engagement just stopped,” Madens told Al Jazeera.
He is one of hundreds of social media users who accuse the biggest platforms—Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok—of censoring or limiting the reach of pro-Palestinian content. This practice is often called "shadow banning."

Belgian filmmaker Thomas Maddens noticed a decrease in engagement with his video that is Palestine [Courtesy of Thomas Maddens]

As Al Jazeera explained, Palestinian reporter Mariam Barghouti wrote in a post: "What people don't get is that Palestinians aren't seeking revenge—they just want to go back home after they were forced out. They are not attempting to fight violence with violence."
But the post was taken down for violating Meta's extremism policy, officially known as "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations."
Source: A screenshot of the post shared by the author on Instagram.

Digital Wars: An Ongoing Battle

The American website The Intercept ran a piece by writer Sam Biddle reporting on shadow banning and the narrative war Meta—specifically through Instagram—is waging against Palestinian content.
According to the article, Biddle says how Meta has been shadow banning or deleting posts concerning Palestine, quietly taking them down or concealing them from the public, and helping spread one version of the story—the one that supports the occupation. He states that since Israel began conducting airstrikes on Gaza after the Hamas attack of October 7, users of Instagram and Facebook have experienced a large number of their posts being deleted. In some cases, Palestinian accounts had the word "terrorist" automatically translated into their biographies. Even hashtags were censored.
Instagram also censored comments that included the Palestinian flag emoji, said Palestinian digital rights group 7amleh, which officially works together with Meta on issues of freedom of expression in the Middle East. The platform censored comments from many users and demoted them to the end of the posts where others would have to click "see more" to view them, the group said.

Eric Seip, the US national coordinator of 7amleh, reiterated the same: it was happening a lot when the comment had the Palestinian flag. Users also reported that Instagram marked the flag emoji comments as "potentially offensive," according to TechCrunch.

Meta had responded that the instances were due to "technical errors." Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told The Intercept that the company hides some comments with the flag emoji when they appear in what they refer to as "abusive contexts" which break company policy.

Stone cited his company's policy regarding "Dangerous Persons and Groups" which include Hamas, and said that the company has no tolerance for any content that wishes congratulations or jokes at the death of an individual. He also said that Meta doesn't handle the Palestinian flag emoji differently in terms of policy.

Sam Biddle
Current Position: Senior Technology Reporter at The Intercept, covering topics like surveillance, privacy, cybersecurity, and key players in the tech industry.

Previous Experience:
Senior Writer at Gawker (2014–2016)
Editor for Valleywag and Gawker blogs, specializing in Silicon Valley news

Senior Reporter at Gizmodo, contributing investigative technology articles


Style and Notable Work:
In June 2016, he joined The Intercept. His mission there is to hold technology companies and surveillance agencies accountable through thorough and bold investigative reports.

Algorithmic suppression

    The Al Jazeera Centre for Studies published a report titled “Digital Occupation: Pixelated Propaganda, Censored Platforms, and the Battle Over the Gaza Narrative.” The report was released in English and explored several key topics such as algorithmic suppression, shadow banning, content deletion, and the wider media war over Gaza’s narrative.
The study described social media platforms as a double-edged sword. While they are useful for spreading messages, they are also heavily restricted by censorship policies. It stated:
“Social media platforms have become essential for sharing perspectives on the genocide in Gaza, but they have also been criticized for biased content moderation.”
These platforms have used tools like shadow banning, account suspensions, and algorithmic censorship—measures that have disproportionately targeted pro-Palestinian content. This has raised serious concerns about censorship and the erasure of Palestinian voices.

CFMM

HRW

GV

According to reports such as one by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), Israeli narratives still dominate online media. On TV and digital news platforms, Israeli voices appear three times more often than Palestinian ones. At the same time, digital campaigns supporting Palestine have been weakened by blocking or limiting key hashtags like #FreePalestine, which has reduced global solidarity.In a section titled “How Are Palestinian Voices Being Silenced?” the report explains that under the excuse of “content regulation,” platforms have suppressed pro-Palestinian speech using tactics that restrict free expression and reduce global awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the territories.Some of the most common methods include deleting posts—whether images, videos, or texts—that mention Palestine or support Palestinians. Often, these removals happen without clear reasons, raising more concerns about shrinking space for free speech. This issue was also highlighted by reports from Human Rights Watch and Global Voices.

In addition, platforms have suspended the accounts of Palestinian journalists and activists, limiting their ability to reach audiences. Other restrictions include disabling comments, blocking live streaming, and turning off likes—all of which reduce engagement and visibility.Shadow banning also makes posts less visible in people’s feeds, weakening the impact of awareness campaigns. Changes in the platforms’ algorithms have further affected how widely Palestinian content is seen around the world. Sometimes, users are even blocked from following or interacting with pro-Palestinian accounts, making it harder for these voices to grow and reach new audiences.Altogether, these tactics work to silence the Palestinian narrative, restrict freedom of speech, and make it harder for activists to document and share the daily suffering of Palestinians.In response, several human rights organizations have called for accountability and stronger protection of digital rights for Palestinians

According to 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, Instagram uses shadow banning against accounts that support Palestine. This is done through Natural Language Processing (NLP) and targeted geographic censorship of Palestinian accounts.The platform’s NLP system tracks specific keywords related to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation—words like Palestine, Gaza, genocide, martyr, resistance, and others. Posts that include these terms are often delayed from appearing in the main feed or Explore page for up to 72 hours.The idea behind NLP is to scan and detect content based on specific words, phrases, and even visual symbols or emojis that are commonly used in pro-Palestinian content. This means not only written language but also images and icons are being monitored.
To discuss this topic further, I conducted a podcast with social media specialist and software developer Ali Merhi:

Podcast

According to 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, the reach of posts drops by 87% when they include any content related to Gaza, while the reach decreases by only 12% when the posts are about Israel.

Here is an infographic that explains these numbers.

Algorithm manipulation

Given the harsh and dark reality of censorship against pro-Palestinian content, and the need to keep publishing for many reasons—like fighting against hostile narratives, exposing war crimes, and sharing the Palestinian people's story compared to the enemy’s narrative—it became necessary to find a way to keep this content alive. This solution is tricking the algorithms, which, as explained before, work to suppress this content.

An Al Jazeera English report titled “Are Social Media Companies Monitoring Pro-Palestinian Voices During the Israeli War on Gaza?” talked about some technical solutions using tricks and programming techniques.

The report said some people who felt censored on social media found alternative ways. For example, a Palestinian activist who asked to stay anonymous for safety told Al Jazeera:

 “We started breaking up words when posting on Instagram.
When I wrote words like ‘Palestine,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ or ‘apartheid,’ I would break the words with dots or slashes. I replaced the letter ‘A’ with the ‘@’ symbol. This is how I tricked the algorithm.”

A diagram of how algorithms read profile picture patterns of accounts.

To keep publishing despite the censorship, Mohamed Darwish, 31, founder of the blockchain company Bydotpy based in Cairo, Egypt, created a website called FreePalestine.bydotpy that automates this process. For example, when you type “Gaza” on the website, it automatically changes the word into a version that’s harder for social media algorithms to detect. Users can then copy and paste this into any social media app.
Darwish added: “As a community of developers, we believe nothing is impossible with code.So, I developed this tool, which comes in two versions: one for Arabic and one for English.”He explained, “The tool changes the shape of sentences to make it difficult for AI and Facebook’s algorithms to understand the meaning of the text.”

For my humanity I will continue to publish

Despite the restrictions, there is still hope. Every problem has a solution, even if it requires a lot of effort or might affect careers and job opportunities later on. When the motivation comes from humanity and the shared belief that sacrifice is necessary to achieve freedom, we see examples of people who refuse to give in to digital blockade and censorship.

Continuing to publish posts, videos, and everything needed to raise the voices of those buried alive in Palestine became a firm decision.

Ghada Saad, an activist and journalist who has tirelessly been publishing about Palestine since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, shared her experience with us—from her motivations to the principles and values that guide her.

How did the restrictions imposed by Instagram on Palestinian content become a challenge but also a motivation for users and activists to keep posting?

Palestine is oppressed legally and humanely

The censorship of pro-Palestinian content on Instagram is a violation of the right to freedom of opinion, expression, and information as guaranteed by international agreements. When big companies block this content, they often claim it was due to a technical error, without any real ethical justification.

Many times, users post peaceful opinions supporting Palestinians or expressing their views calmly, only to face shadow banning. Because of this, I believe there is a strong need for transparency in this area, while ensuring everyone’s right to express their opinions without violating others’ privacy.
Last July, the European Union approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), aiming to control the power of large tech companies. This law requires social media platforms to follow rules that protect digital safety and preserve users’ freedom of expression.

In a report by Al Jazeera English, a spokesperson for the European Union said: “Platforms must be very transparent and clear about the content allowed under their terms, and consistently and accurately enforce their policies.”
He added, “This is especially important when it comes to violent and terrorist content.”Importantly, the law also requires transparency about shadow banning and other content management practices. The spokesperson said,
“When an account is restricted, the user must be informed,” and added that users have the right to appeal such decisions.
However, according to Al Jazeera English, some experts doubt how effective this law will be in the current situation.

Regarding legal actions against Meta for its repressive policies toward Palestinian content, we interviewed human rights lawyer Hassan Maanqi, who shared his views on possible legal steps .In the end, censorship of Palestinian content harms journalists, civil society, and human rights defenders during crises. It especially stops Palestinians from shaping the context of events that directly affect their lives. It is crucial for companies to realize their role at this critical time and understand that maintaining a continuous flow of information to and from Palestine is essential to save lives and reduce the impact of censorship on human rights.

In the end, censorship of Palestinian content harms journalists, civil society, and human rights defenders during times of crisis. It especially prevents Palestinians from shaping the context of events that affect their lives at this critical moment.

It is essential for companies to understand their role at this crucial time and realize that maintaining a steady flow of information to and from Palestine is vital to saving lives and reducing the impact of censorship on human rights.

Study confirms Instagram blocks comments without user notification

Industrial Waste Management
Organic Waste Composting
The post shows "Show one comment" to all users.

Comments section, viewed from a spam test account

Instagram hid comments without notifying commenters or even the post owner. Screenshots taken on February 24, 2024.

A study by The Markup, a news website that focuses on how technology affects society through data-driven journalism and is known for its field research, reported on Instagram’s shadow banning of content it considers “inappropriate.”
The site found that in many cases of shadow banning, the person who posted the content or comment is not notified that their content was hidden.

The report said:
> “In our February tests, we monitored comments posted from our test accounts and noticed they were frequently shadow banned by Instagram.
Eight out of ten annoying comments we posted were always visible to the commenter but not visible to other accounts. The commenters received no notice that their comments were affected.
Two of the annoying comments that were visible to users other than the commenter said, ‘Message me to learn how to get a dislike button.’ (After eight days, one of these accounts was suspended, even though it was no different from the others).”

Comments section, as viewed from all other accounts

In light of the technological revolution... where does the future lead?

Given the suspicious developments and the rapid progress we are witnessing in technology, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, an interview was conducted with expert Mr. Youssef Munther, who discussed our future from a precise scientific perspective.

To read more
press here

conclusion

Instagram’s double standards in applying privacy policies and content restrictions in an inconsistent and unequal way show that we are facing a serious ethical, legal, and humanitarian crisis. This situation calls for everyone who cares about humanity to unite—not to take sides, but to ensure a space for free expression for all users, regardless of their backgrounds, beliefs, or opinions.

This right to freedom of expression is one of the most important human rights, allowing people to share their views in many ways. If Instagram and its parent company, Meta, decide to continue this discriminatory behavior against Palestinians and their content on the platform, they should stop pretending their policies are equal. Instead, they should be honest with supporters of the Palestinian cause and admit that they do not accept or allow their content, rather than claiming equal freedom of speech for everyone.

Because in reality, the platform’s slogans about freedom of expression have no real impact at all.