Facebook apologises for shutting down Palestinian journalists' accounts
Facebook apologises for shutting down Palestinian journalists' accounts
Facebook has said that the removal of the administrators of two massive Palestinian news groups was made in error.
2 min read
Facebook is being accused of complying with Israeli censorship [Facebook]
After Facebook disabled the administrator's accounts of Palestinian news giants Quds and Shehab on Friday, the company has now apologised.
"The pages were removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate," a Facebook spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada.
"Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We’re very sorry about this mistake."
According to the The Electronic Intifada, the accounts were suspended after they had been reported for violations of Facebook’s "community standards."
But once investigations were undertaken and no violations were found, they were restored.
The move is seen as the latest cooperation between the social networking site and the Israeli government to tackle pro-Palestinian campaigns, including the BDS movement.
Israel deems such campaigns to be "incitement".
Hamas-affiliated Facebook accounts were shut down in July.
In June, Facebook appointed a longtime senior adviser to Israeli Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu as head of policy and communication.
Jordana Cutler joined Facebook's Israel office to oversee the planning and execution of measures taken to combat the Palestinian uprising.
Since October 2015, violence has killed at least 209 Palestinians and 32 Israelis.
While Israeli troops have been accused of using excessive force in many cases, Israel claims that a Palestinian campaign of incitement is fanning the violence.
Palestinians say the rise in knife attacks on Israeli soldiers is rooted in frustration stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation.
Many have deemed the crackdown on Palestinian social media to be censorship, with Quds announcing a two hour halt in posts on Sunday to protest Facebook’s complicity.
"The pages were removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate," a Facebook spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada.
"Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We’re very sorry about this mistake."
According to the The Electronic Intifada, the accounts were suspended after they had been reported for violations of Facebook’s "community standards."
But once investigations were undertaken and no violations were found, they were restored.
The move is seen as the latest cooperation between the social networking site and the Israeli government to tackle pro-Palestinian campaigns, including the BDS movement.
Israel deems such campaigns to be "incitement".
Hamas-affiliated Facebook accounts were shut down in July.
In June, Facebook appointed a longtime senior adviser to Israeli Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu as head of policy and communication.
Jordana Cutler joined Facebook's Israel office to oversee the planning and execution of measures taken to combat the Palestinian uprising.
Since October 2015, violence has killed at least 209 Palestinians and 32 Israelis.
While Israeli troops have been accused of using excessive force in many cases, Israel claims that a Palestinian campaign of incitement is fanning the violence.
Palestinians say the rise in knife attacks on Israeli soldiers is rooted in frustration stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation.
Many have deemed the crackdown on Palestinian social media to be censorship, with Quds announcing a two hour halt in posts on Sunday to protest Facebook’s complicity.
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