Al Jazeera: Twitter Under Fire for Allegedly Censoring Palestinian Public Figures

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Facts

  • According to an Al Jazeera report published on Tuesday, digital rights groups are accusing Twitter and Facebook of censoring Palestinian journalists after a number of prominent accounts were suspended.1
  • On Dec. 3, Washington, DC-based Palestinian journalist Said Arikat was suspended for nearly a month, which he believes was for being outspoken about Palestine and Israel. On Jan. 8, Noura Erakat, a Palestinian lawyer and human rights advocate, was suspended but was reinstated a day later.1
  • Twitter reportedly notified Arikat and Erakat that the suspensions were because both of their accounts had been hacked. However, they claim that, upon further inquiry, the social media company failed to provide any other information.1
  • Arikat served as UN spokesman in Iraq from 2005 to 2010 and has been present at State Department press briefings for nearly 20 years as Al-Quds' Washington bureau chief — one of Palestine’s most popular newspapers.2
  • In the wake of Arikat’s Twitter account suspension, Meta shut down Al-Quds’ Facebook page that same month, sparking more outrage from pro-Palestine advocates.3

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2Middle east eye and 3Scheerpost.

Narratives

  • Pro-Palestine, as provided by Adc. Palestinian voices have long been silenced by tech giants, and Twitter under Musk has continued this trend of suppressing journalists who speak out against abuses in the Middle East. Musk purports to be a free speech absolutist, yet his regime suspended a Palestinian journalist without reason — a dangerous violation of his rights that has been alarmingly ignored by the mainstream media.
  • Pro-Israel, as provided by Jns.org. Said Arikat is a dangerous peddler of propaganda whose influence isn't limited to his following online. He deliberately slandered Israel at a State Department press briefing by saying an Israeli soldier had shot 'point blank at an unarmed Palestinian,' when in reality the officer was firing at a terrorist — just one of his many lies that can lead to anti-Semitic violence and shouldn't be tolerated.