Activists say the world’s largest social media platforms are censoring content about Palestine.

Qatar’s Gulf Times newspaper has said that its Instagram account was restricted with access to the account blocked until Tuesday over its “coverage of Palestine”.

“After our rigorous efforts in pushing the right narrative and bringing the true stories and facts from Palestine about the Israeli aggression and genocide during the last 100 days, @instagram has finally blocked Gulf Times from posting,” Gulf Times stated. 

“The social media channel is trying to silence our voice and silence the voice of thousands of Palestinians,” the outlet added. 

The account restriction comes amid several reports of censorship of social media posts by platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Since 7 October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented over 1,050 removal and other suppression of content on Instagram and Facebook which had been posted by Palestinians and their supporters, including about human rights abuses. 

“Human Rights Watch publicly solicited cases of any type of online censorship and of any type of viewpoints related to Israel and Palestine. Of the 1,050 cases reviewed for this report, 1,049 involved peaceful content in support of Palestine that was censored or otherwise unduly suppressed, while one case involved removal of content in support of Israel,” the international non-governmental organization stated in a report. 

“Human Rights Watch found that the censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global. Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine,” the organization added. 

Accounts like @eye.on.palestine have been continuously banned on Instagram for “not following” community guidelines. 

Meta, accountable for Facebook and Instagram, said: “These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise, and we’re working to make contact with the account owners to make sure they have access.”

A report by the Intercept found that Facebook and Instagram’s speech policies harmed the fundamental human rights of Palestinian users during the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip in May 2021.