– It is a kind of censorship. Artist Tiril Valeur is one of many who have committed themselves to the people of Gaza by posting on social media. On Instagram, she regularly posts her own illustrations in support of the population of Gaza. In particular, she urges Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to take action. That’s why she created the hashtag #Størehvaskaldugjøre. But shortly after, it was taken down by Instagram. It said that it was against the guidelines on the platform. news has been in contact with the Prime Minister’s office, which does not wish to comment on the matter. Received criticism The second topic peg she made about Støre was also removed. A follower alerted Tiril Valeur that the subject tag was being hidden from Instagram. It went against the platform’s guidelines, it said. Photo: screenshot / instagram – It was a bit funny because it was removed very quickly. It hardly managed to go viral. It was a tiny hashtag, says Valeur to news. She was alerted when a follower tried to use the topic peg. Then all the posts below were removed. – We think that Norway has a greater room for action than is being exploited in this situation, and Støre is our top leader. It is natural for me to ask him the question, what are you going to do? Valeur is not the only one who has experienced something similar. Valeur has been involved in the war in Gaza and regularly posts on the platform. Photo: PRIVATE Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has received repeated criticism in recent years for removing content. news has previously written about actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss who experienced that posts she published about the conflict were hidden. Meta then denied that they deliberately hid content about the conflict and pointed at the time to an error in their own systems which should have affected users who republished posts in their history. Several users have the same report But in December, Human Rights Watch came out with a report in which they claim Meta systematically censors pro-Palestinian content. There they analyzed 1,050 reported cases of content related to the war that has been removed. Only one of the cases was content that supported Israel. The remaining 1,049 were, according to the human rights organization, peaceful content in support of Palestine. – The findings are very clear and show that pro-Palestinian content is being removed. At the same time, the report does not show the whole picture, says Bente Kalsnes, professor of political communication. Bente Kalsnes is a professor of political communication and thinks it is problematic that we do not have enough information about how Meta and other technology companies moderate content. Photo: Sonja Balci – The report is based on users’ own reporting. It is not very good to say whether Human Rights Watch has succeeded in engaging a similar amount of Israeli users who have had content removed, Kalsnes points out. In addition to criticism for removing pro-Palestinian content, Meta has also received criticism for removing videos of the hostages Hamas took on October 7. – The best thing would have been if you were given data from Meta and could systematically review it. But the only thing we have so far is users’ own reporting, because Meta does not provide particularly much insight into how they actually moderate content, Kalsnes points out. Rejects criticism news has tried for several days to get in touch with Meta, without success. But recently Meta rejected the criticism from Human Rights Watch in The Guardian. The company admitted, among other things, that they make mistakes that can be frustrating for people, but rejects the claim that they systematically suppress certain voices and opinions. Photo: SCREEN DUMP / INSTAGRAM Meta also claimed that the roughly one thousand examples the human rights organization has reviewed do not represent the whole picture. The technology giant has also published a blog post in which they write that they have taken several measures to moderate content after the war between Hamas and Israel broke out. There they state, among other things, that they moderated more than 750,000 posts in both Arabic and Hebrew in the days after 7 October. At the same time, Meta carried out a review in 2021, where they themselves concluded that the platform had contributed to preventing Palestinian voices from expressing themselves. – Controls which expressions come forward Jurist Anine Kierulf believes that censorship – whether it is with knowledge and intention or not – is among the consequences of the fact that we have moved much of the public over to the technology platforms. – The technology companies have become so important that they in reality control a great deal of which statements come forward and which do not. And which expressions get wide and small spread. Rights that you basically have through the state, such as the right to express yourself freely, are therefore not as self-evident, she believes. Anine Kierulf believes that the removal of statements is a consequence of the fact that much of the public debate has shifted to the technology companies. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen – The state has committed itself to freedom of expression, you have legal systems that make laws and regulations predictable. It must be transparent and you get reasons for decisions that are made, says Kierulf and continues: – None of these guarantees of legal certainty exist in the face of the platforms’ own rules, which they create on their own without democratic input. – An innocent subject Tiril Valeur tells of a feeling of powerlessness over the situation in Gaza. But she won’t stop using her art for activism. – I think it’s a very innocent topic. The Prime Minister is asked what he is going to do. And then the question is removed. I think it is primarily strange, says Valeur.
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Put pressure on Støre about the Gaza war – was removed from Instagram – news Culture and entertainment
