The Associated Press (AP) is facing criticism after firing Emily Wilder over her pro-Palestinian views in college. The AP fired Wilder, who is Jewish, for violating 'News Values and Principles' social media policies, which led to backlash from journalists after realizing that "Wilder had been targeted by rightwing media outlets for her pro-Palestinian activism in college," as she confirmed to the Guardian.

A spokesperson said that while AP “generally refrains from commenting on personnel matters, we can confirm Emily Wilder’s comments on Thursday that she was dismissed for violations of AP’s social media policy during her time at AP”.

The AP spokesperson added that the relevant policy exists so that “one person cannot create dangerous conditions for our journalists covering the story. Every AP journalist is responsible for safeguarding our ability to report on this conflict, or any other, with fairness and credibility, and cannot take sides in public forums.”

Wilder tweeted a statement saying "My statement on my termination from The Associated Press."

-Picture from Wilder's Twitter account.

Before her termination, rightwing and conservative media outlets published stories related to Wilder's previous social media posts including a thread highlighting her previous activism, which was tweeted by the Stanford College Republicans.

One of Wilder's tweets after she was employed by the AP read “‘Objectivity’ feels fickle when the basic terms we use to report news implicitly stake a claim.” She continued writing “Using ‘Israel’ but never ‘Palestine,’ or ‘war’ but not ‘siege and occupation’ are political choices – yet media make those exact choices all the time without being flagged as biased.”

The union that represents the Associated Press’s editorial and technology staff, News Media Guild, said investigations are underway regarding Wilder’s firing.

Several reporters compared the way AP treated Wilder to the way CNN treated Chris Cuomo, "amid revelations that he advised his brother, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations," highlighting the fact that he did not face harsh disciplinary action.