Meta accused of silencing Gaza coverage as Roya becomes prime target

Newsroom teams at several major media organizations, including Roya News Digital Platforms, have accused Meta of launching a systematic 'digital war' against coverage of the war in Gaza. In a move journalists warn threatens press freedom, editorial teams report that the tech giant is now retroactively deleting documented evidence of human rights violations.

Staff confirmed that content is being removed from Facebook and Instagram despite strictly adhering to standard news guidelines, effectively obstructing the documentation of facts on the ground

Erasing History: The "Retroactive" Threat

According to statements from English and Arabic editorial boards, as well as the Rights Management departments, the deletion of content is occurring without prior warning.

Crucially, this censorship is being applied retroactively. Reports, videos, and visual evidence that had previously been approved and published are now being scrubbed from the platforms. This move effectively erases the historical archive of the aggression on Gaza, removing critical context that had been available to the public for months.

Editorial teams emphasized that these deletions are targeting content that strictly adheres to Meta’s own Community Guidelines and standard news coverage protocols, placing journalists in what they described as a circle of "unjustified targeting."

Navigating "Digital Minefields"

The operational toll on journalists has been severe. Staff at Roya described the current environment on Meta’s platforms as a "digital minefield" that they must navigate daily to ensure the truth reaches the public.

"We are effectively forced to rebuild our work from zero," the editorial team stated, expressing deep frustration at the arbitrary nature of the enforcement.

Over the past few months, Roya’s crews have painstakingly reviewed thousands of hours of graphic and sensitive footage. The goal was to balance the duty to report on the violence in Gaza with a strict adherence to social media safety policies. However, despite this rigorous internal vetting process, compliant material continues to be removed, and new, opaque restrictions are being imposed on the accounts.

A Comprehensive Report to Expose the Bias

In response to this "digital siege," journalists have announced they are preparing a comprehensive report for public opinion.

This dossier intends to expose the mechanisms of this suppression. It will feature:

• Live Testimonies: First-hand accounts from editorial, content, and rights management teams describing the daily obstructions they face.
• Data-Driven Evidence: Detailed analytics revealing the sheer volume of posts deleted and the reach restricted.
• Policy Analysis: An examination of how "community standards" are being weaponized to silence humanitarian reporting.

A Call for Global Debate

Despite the escalating technical obstacles, Roya Media Group affirmed its unwavering commitment to its mission.

"We will continue to document what is happening in Gaza," the Group asserted in its statement.

Journalists are now calling for an urgent, expanded international debate regarding the power of Big Tech companies, warning that the dominance of these platforms over the flow of information poses a critical threat to press freedom, particularly when covering sensitive humanitarian crises and war crimes.