Users are accusing the social media giant, Meta, of intentionally suppressing posts expressing support for Palestine. These claims highlight longstanding apprehensions regarding the fairness of content moderation, particularly amidst the ongoing aggression on Gaza.

Over the weekend, numerous users of both Instagram and Facebook reported a noticeable reduction in their post reach when sharing "pro-Palestine" content.

A social media user wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Meta is shadow banning content that supports Palestine, according to Palestinian accounts from Gaza, and in case anyone was wondering where Facebook/Instagram/Meta stand on the current genocide of Palestinians enacted by Israel."

Another user wrote: "I’m not surprised I’ve been shadow banned by meta (fb) for the last few days and possibly for the next few weeks, trying to silence my freedom to speak against injustice (the illegal occupiers in Palestine. I will continue to raise awareness and so should everyone else."

Journalist Shahed Ezaydi, known for covering politics, feminism, and social issues, told Hunger Magazine, "I usually get 150-200 people viewing my Stories, but when I posted about Palestine I got not a single view in six hours. As soon as I removed them and shared a typed post about being shadowbanned and a screenshotted post about Palestine, my reach was back to normal."

Furthermore, numerous social media users have reported a substantial decrease in their Instagram story views.

One user shared with Roya, "I have approximately 4,000 Instagram followers, and my stories typically garner over 1,000 views. However, when I began sharing stories about Palestine and the struggle of Palestinians, my reach plummeted to just 20 views."

"I had to switch to a completely unrelated story. Suddenly, my views shot back up."

Another user conveyed to Roya that upon opening their Instagram account, they consistently encounter content related to food and lifestyle, but notably absent are posts pertaining to Palestine.

Also Read: Instagram issues apology for adding word 'Terrorist' to pro-Palestine profiles

Earlier this week, Meta issued an apology following an incident involving its auto-translation feature incorrectly adding the term "terrorist" to the profiles of certain pro-Palestinian Instagram users.

404 Media revealed that the words "Palestinian" and "Alhamdulillah" (which translates to "praise be to God") were erroneously translated to read as "Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom."

Meta has since resolved the issue, with the auto-translation now correctly rendering the phrase as "thank God."

A spokesperson stated, “We fixed a problem that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations in some of our products. We sincerely apologise that this happened.”