{"id":30675,"date":"2023-12-18T13:15:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30675"},"modified":"2023-12-18T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:15:26","slug":"sen-elizabeth-warren-questions-meta-over-palestinian-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/18\/sen-elizabeth-warren-questions-meta-over-palestinian-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN QUESTIONS META OVER PALESTINIAN CENSORSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Senator<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Sen. Elizabeth Warren, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2023.\u00a0Photo: Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook and Instagram\u2019s wartime content moderation practices have \u201cexacerbated violence and failed to combat hate speech,\u201d the senator says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 14 2023, 1:00 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IN A LETTER<\/strong> sent Thursday to Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., calls on the Facebook and Instagram owner to disclose unreleased details about wartime content moderation practices that have \u201cexacerbated violence and failed to combat hate speech,\u201d citing recent reporting by The Intercept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmidst the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, a humanitarian catastrophe including the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza, and the killing of dozens of journalists, it is more important than ever that social media platforms do not censor truthful and legitimate content, particularly as people around the world turn to online communities to share and find information about developments in the region,\u201d the letter<\/a> reads, according to a copy shared with The Intercept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack, social media users around the world have reported the inexplicable disappearance of posts, comments, hashtags<\/a>, and entire accounts<\/a> \u2014 even though they did not seem to violate any rules. Uneven enforcement of rules generally, and Palestinian censorship specifically, have proven perennial problems for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and the company has routinely blamed erratic rule enforcement on human error and technical glitches, while vowing to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a string of 2021 Israeli raids at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, Instagram temporarily censored posts about the holy site on the grounds that it was associated with terrorism.\u00a0A third-party audit<\/a>\u00a0of the company\u2019s speech policies in Israel and Palestine conducted last year found that \u201cMeta\u2019s actions in May 2021 appear to have had an adverse human rights impact \u2026 on the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination, and therefore on the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Users affected by these moderation decisions, meanwhile, are left with little to no recourse, and often have no idea why their posts were censored in the first place. Meta\u2019s increased reliance on opaque, automated content moderation algorithms has only exacerbated the company\u2019s lack of transparency around speech policy, and has done little to allay allegations that the company\u2019s systems are structurally biased against certain groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter references recent articles by The Intercept, the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, and other<\/a> outlets\u2019 reporting<\/a> on the widespread, unexplained censorship of Palestinians and the broader discussion of Israel\u2019s ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Last month, for instance, The Intercept reported that Instagram users leaving Palestinian flag emojis<\/a> in post comments had seen those comments quickly hidden; Facebook later told The Intercept it was hiding these emojis in contexts it deemed \u201cpotentially offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSocial media users deserve to know when and why their accounts and posts are restricted, particularly on the largest platforms where vital information-sharing occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These \u201creports of Meta\u2019s suppression of Palestinian voices raise serious questions about Meta\u2019s content moderation practices and anti-discrimination protections,\u201d Warren writes. \u201cSocial media users deserve to know when and why their accounts and posts are restricted, particularly on the largest platforms where vital information-sharing occurs. Users also deserve protection against discrimination based on their national origin, religion, and other protected characteristics.\u201d Outside of its generalized annual reports, Meta typically shares precious little about how it enforces its rules in specific instances, or how its policies are determined behind closed doors. This general secrecy around the company\u2019s speech rules mean that users are often in the dark about whether a given post will be allowed \u2014 especially if it even mentions a U.S.-designated terror organization like Hamas \u2014 until it\u2019s too late.Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To resolve this, and \u201c[i]n order to further understand what legislative action might be necessary to address these issues,\u201d Warren\u2019s letter includes a litany of specific questions about how Meta treats content pertaining to the war, and to what extent it has enforced its speech rules depending on who\u2019s speaking. \u201cHow many Arabic language posts originating from Palestine have been removed [since October 7]?\u201d the letter asks. \u201cWhat percentage of total Arabic language posts originating from Palestine does the above number represent?\u201d The letter further asks Meta to divulge removal statistics since the war began (\u201cHow often did Meta limit the reachability of posts globally while notifying the user?\u201d) and granular details of its enforcement system (\u201cWhat was the average response time for a user appeal of a content moderation decision for Arabic language posts originating from Palestine?\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter asks Meta to respond to Warren\u2019s dozens of questions by January 5, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sam Biddle<\/a>sam.biddle@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a>+1 978 261 7389on Signal@sambiddle.bsky.social<\/a>on Bluesky@samfbiddle<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, speaks during a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2023.\u00a0Photo: Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images Facebook and Instagram\u2019s wartime content moderation practices have \u201cexacerbated violence and failed to combat hate speech,\u201d the senator says. Sam Biddle December 14 2023, 1:00 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1631,1632,1633],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30676,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30675\/revisions\/30676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}