A first step toward ending digital discrimination against Palestine

Last week, the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) network released its Human Rights Due Diligence report regarding Arabic and Hebrew content on Meta’s (Facebook and Instagram's parent company) platform during May 2021. 

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), along with 71 local, regional, and international partners issued a joint statement in response to this report. Human rights organizations and civil society have been calling for an independent review of Meta’s content moderation policies as they pertain to Palestine for years, so we commend the publication of this report.

This report represents the culmination of years of work by leading human rights and advocacy organizations, to promote and protect Palestinian digital rights, and calls for an independent review of the content moderation policies of “Meta” platforms. Through such a review, Meta will now have to address the bias across their platforms and address their pattern of continuous and deliberate censorship of the Palestinian voices and narratives, as well as better, protect and uphold the rights of those who are speaking out and working in solidarity with the Palestinian community. 

We see this report as a first step to correct and end digital discrimination against Palestinians, and we hope that Meta will adhere to it in practice. It is essential that they provide a detailed timeline for how and when they will change their policies, communicate clearly their plan to implement changes in order to end digital discrimination against Palestinians and ensure access to a safe, fair, and free digital space.