– There were only five people who had seen the story in two hours. The posts of actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss on Instagram usually have thousands of views. When she posted two posts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to weak response, she realized something was wrong. – I asked my friends if they could see my story, and then they told me that it didn’t appear in the news update in the app. They had to actively go to my profile and click on it to see it. – It is absolutely extremely frightening. We live in Norway and are used to freedom of expression, so this happens, says Næss about the unpleasant episode. After Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, many people have felt the need to express what they think about the situation, and use social media as a platform. After 20 hours, Næss had only 38 viewers. Usually she has thousands. Photo: screenshot The actress says she had shared other people’s posts in her story. – One was a video from Doctors Without Borders saying that the deadline given to Palestinians to evacuate Gaza was too short. The second was this post: This is one of the posts Loch Næss shared on his Instagram story on October 14 Photo: Screenshot from Instagram Claims Meta takes sides Næss decided to share the incident with his followers. Then she learned that she was not alone in having stories hidden by Instagram. – It had happened to anyone who tried to share something that could be interpreted as pro-Palestinian or that puts Israel in a bad light, she believes. – Meta legitimizes Israel’s actions, when they only allow one side of the story to be told. news has documentation from several Norwegian Instagram users who have received unusually few views on content about Palestine. The posts in this picture had all been out for many hours. Photo: Screenshot – Very serious Anna Versto also discovered that almost no one saw what she posted about Palestine. – On 15 October there was a sudden huge drop in viewers. Versto usually has 400-500 people who follow her stories. Now suddenly it was only ten. – The fact that Instagram censors is extremely serious. It is dehumanization and minimization of Palestinian lives, says Versto. Meta: – Fault in the system news has submitted the criticism to Instagram owner Meta and asked for a response. They have not responded to the inquiries. In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Meta wrote that they had discovered an error in their system. It affected anyone who republished posts in their story, according to the company. The error is said to have led to these stories not appearing in the news update as they normally would, and therefore had a significantly reduced reach. – The error affected accounts equally around the world, and had nothing to do with the content. We fixed it as quickly as possible, writes communications director Andy Stone in the statement. Still restrictions Even after 15 October, several people have experienced Instagram behaving strangely. On Wednesday, one of Instagram’s largest pro-Palestinian accounts was deactivated. @eye.on.palestine had over 6 million followers, sharing daily from inside the Gaza Strip. According to Meta, it was closed “for security reasons”. On Thursday evening, Meta’s spokesperson Andy Stone wrote that the account could now be reopened, but it was not yet open on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the back-up account has also been closed. The Norwegian Data Protection Agency: Given the explanations they give us, the Norwegian Data Protection Agency says they are aware of the problem. – We know something about the phenomenon of shadowbanning, but not everything, because the platforms where it occurs are usually not very open about what they actually do, says Tobias Judin in the Norwegian Data Protection Authority. – In short, shadowbanning is about making content or users less available, or not available at all. Tobias Judin in the Norwegian Data Protection Authority says that platforms have been using so-called shadowbanning since the 2000s. Photo: Martin Gundersen / news Whether it is a fault in the system, moderation or shadow banning that caused Næss’s stories to be hidden, Judin cannot say anything about. – Errors occur, so-called “bugs”. We know that. Whether this was a bug, or an attempt to put a lid on something they have done that could potentially be inappropriate and less ethical, we have no idea, he says and adds: – That’s how it is with these platforms. We are completely at the mercy of the explanations they give us. It is quite possible that they are fooling us. We don’t have the tools to detect that. Criticized before This is not the first time Meta has received criticism for how they handle pro-Palestinian content. In 2021, when there were clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque, Instagram removed posts and blocked hashtags that mentioned the mosque. Famous model Bella Hadid, who has a Palestinian father, was among those who came out strongly against the platform after her posts were removed. – Even if you try to silence me, Instagram, I will continue to stand up and share how the Israeli authorities and settlers attack innocent Palestinians for no reason, except that they are Palestinians, Hadid wrote in a post to her 60 million followers. Bella Hadid says she will never stop sharing things on Instagram about Palestine, even though Meta removes them, according to the model. Photo: AFP On its own help pages, Meta writes that it increased security and introduced a number of measures to deal with potentially harmful content, following Hamas’ attack on Israel. “Content containing praise for Hamas, designated by Meta as a terrorist organization, or violent and graphic content is not permitted on our platforms.” Furthermore, Meta writes that they can make mistakes, and therefore offers an opportunity to appeal. – Can affect democracy – This is where a bit of the problem with shadowbanning comes up. You don’t necessarily know yourself that you have been shadowbanned. So then the possibility of complaining to Meta becomes a bit illusory, says Judin in the Norwegian Data Protection Authority. He says that there has been a new law in the EU, the Digital Service Act (DSA), which will address precisely parts of this problem. That law states that platforms such as Instagram must inform users if they remove, or make less available, content that the platform believes is illegal. – It is a big step in the right direction. The only problem is that it applies to content that is illegal, or that contravenes the terms of use. What about content that is not illegal, but that they just don’t want to show? Judin asks. – We are so dependent on these platforms to get information and express our opinions. They have become a very large part of the democratic exchange of words. So if they start mixing politics into their moderation, it could affect Norwegian democracy, he says.
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Claims posts about Palestine on Instagram are removed – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
