Facebook has significantly limited the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during Israels war on Gaza that started in October last year, according to BBC research.In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, the BBC found that newsrooms in the Palestinian areas - in Gaza and the West Bank - had actually suffered a steep drop in audience engagement because the start of the war.The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram - another Meta-owned platform - increased its small amounts of Palestinian user remarks after October 2023.
Meta - the owner of Facebook - says that any implication that it deliberately reduced specific voices is unquestionably false .
Because the beginning of Israels war on Gaza, just a couple of outdoors press reporters have actually been enabled to get in the Palestinian coastal territory from the outdoors, and they were only able to do so escorted by the Israeli army.Social media has filled the space for those wishing to hear more voices from inside Gaza.
Facebook pages for news outlets such as Palestine TV, Wafa news company and Palestinian Al-Watan News - which operate out of the West Bank area - ended up being a vital source of updates for many around the world.BBC News Arabic assembled engagement data on the Facebook pages of 20 prominent Palestinian-based wire service in the year leading up to the Gaza dispute in October 2023, and in the year since.Engagement is a key procedure of how much effect a social media account is having and the number of individuals are seeing its content.
It includes such elements as the number of comments, responses and shares.During a duration of war, audience engagement may be expected to increase.
However, the data showed a 77% decrease after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 that was followed by Israels war on the enclave.Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook.
Journalists at the newsroom shared data with the BBC revealing a 60% drop in the number of individuals seeing their posts.
Interaction was entirely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching individuals, states Tariq Ziad, a reporter at the channel.Over the past year, Palestinian reporters have actually raised worries that their online material is being shadow-banned by Meta - simply put, limited in how many individuals see it.To test this, the BBC carried out the same information analysis on the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli wire service such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13.
These pages likewise posted a large amount of war-related content, however their audience engagement increased by nearly 37%.
Meta has formerly been implicated by Palestinians and human rights groups offailing to moderate online activity fairly.