Palestinian activists will launch a social media campaign called FB Fights Palestine, on Wednesday at 8:00 pm.
They will protest recent Facebook deletion of Palestinian content and pages for claimed “hate speech and incitement” against Israelis.

Activists said they will use the hashtag #FBFightsPalestine in posts protesting the social network’s policy that discriminates against Palestinian content.

Iyad Rifai, coordinator of Sada Social Centre- a Palestinian group launched by three journalists in 2017- confirmed the campaign aims to raise awareness of the approach used by Facebook in censoring Palestinian content under Israeli pressure and the violations committed against Palestinian users on Facebook.

Recently, the number of violations committed by Facebook against Palestinian digital content has increased significantly, according to Sada Social Centre. In 2018, more than 50 violations were registered by Facebook against social media activists following the killing of Ahmed Nasr Jarrar who became an icon of resistance for Palestinians.

In 2017 alone, 200 violations were registered by Facebook against Palestinians including the closing and blocking of several Palestinian pages and accounts in addition to deleting photographs and posts.

“We are planning to take further steps if Facebook does not clearly clarify its policies with regards to dealing with Palestinian content,” Rifai added. Further steps might include legal actions against the social media giant, through international organizations advocating for the freedom of speech.

Rifai criticized Facebook’s double standards in cooperating with the Israeli government and removing content Israel finds objectionable but not censoring inflammatory Israeli material against Palestinians.