Current Events > Biden Working With Social Media Companies to Limit Pro-Palestinian Content

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https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/biden-admin-working-with-social-media

The Biden administration has publicly admitted that it is working with tech companies to limit Hamas's use of online platforms, including social media, part of a campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment. Though there has been much speculation that the federal government is pressuring social media companies to police their networks, this is the first official confirmation of its counterterrorism efforts.

A little-noticed readout for a May 15 Hague meeting between the State Departments Coordinator for Counterterrorism Elizabeth Richard and other governments said that Richard updated the group on U.S. efforts to engage tech companies in voluntary collaboration to limit Hamas use of online platforms, including social media, for terrorist purposes. The readout also notes that another similar meeting took place on December 13, in which the U.S. coordinated with partner governments to target Hamas online propaganda.

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have long banned terrorist organizations like Hamas. Now, however, the federal government is pressuring companies to ban Hamas-linked accounts and those of pro-Palestinian Americans.

Hamas is a formally designated terrorist organization, so it makes sense that counterterror officials like Richard would target their communications broadly speaking. But with overwhelming evidence that Americans are getting banned from social media for posts regarding the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. government needs to make clear what the exact nature of its coordination with social media companies is on this subject and how Americans speech is being protected. (The State Department and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

Virtually every major social media platform has banned Hamas from their platforms. But some like Meta, parent company to apps like Instagram and Facebook, went a step further, banning Hamas-linked accounts and even ones without any link to Hamas for alleged praise of dangerous organizations a category the company relies heavily on the U.S. governments list of terrorist organization to define.

Thats exactly what happened to Shaun King, a prominent activist and former surrogate for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. In December, Meta informed King that his Instagram account with five million plus followers had been permanently suspended for praise of one of Metas designated dangerous organizations.

The account was disabled due to multiple instances of praise for designated entities in violation of our policies, a Meta spokesperson said in an email to King.

King told me that the ban came in response to a letter he had posted to his Instagram that December. In it, King praised the Houthi rebels in Yemen for blocking commerce heading toward Israel in the Red Sea, calling it one of the most peaceful options to stop this genocide available to you and thanking them for trying to end the murder of over 25,000 Palestinians.

When prompted about their terrorist designation in January of 2021, King pointed out (correctly) that at the time of his Instagram post, the Biden administration had de-listed them from the State Department list of terrorist organizations.

We do not allow individuals or organizations, a posting on Metas website about its dangerous organizations policy says, designated by the United States government as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (or FTOs) or Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), to have a presence on the platform.

King told me that the U.S. government had a direct role in his being banned. A Kafkaesque back-and-forth between Kings lawyers and Meta ensued, in which they pointed to the fact that the Houthis were no longer on the terror list, but to no avail. This culminated in a meeting with his attorneys, King says, in which Meta hinted that the matter was above their pay grade.

My attorneys said that after their meeting with Meta that it was clear that the U.S. government asked them to shut my account down, King told me. Meta told my attorneys that it was bigger than Meta.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since Hamass October 7 attack on Israel, cases like Kings are becoming increasingly common, according to a report by Human Rights Watch detailing 1,050 takedowns and other actions against pro-Palestinian content on Instagram and Facebook. In all but one case, the content was peaceful in nature, HRW says.

Metas policies and practices have been silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook in a wave of heightened censorship of social media amid the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups that began on October 7, 2023, the report finds.

The report singled out Metas ban on praise of dangerous organizations as a systemic factor that contributed to the censorship of speech regarding the Israel Hamas war.

However, it also contains sweeping bans on vague categories of speech, such as praise and support of dangerous organizations, which it relies heavily on the United States governments designated lists of terrorist organizations to define, the HRW report says.

Don't see anything about limited pro-palestine content. They just don't want Hamas posting stuff on their services.

The effort to brand any support of Palestine in this regard as "pro-Hamas" is really weird

loafy013 posted...

Don't see anything about limited pro-palestine content. They just don't want Hamas posting stuff on their services.

Don't be naive. You can put a lot of Pro-Palestinian beliefs under the umbrella of Hamas if you want to. Not that it is but it's an effective tactic they can and will use. It's the "for the children" of this situation.

loafy013 posted...

Don't see anything about limited pro-palestine content. They just don't want Hamas posting stuff on their services.

Suurree. Accusing Palestine supporters of being Hamas supporters is a common gaslighting method of Zionists.

What's the source here?

CableZL posted...

The effort to brand any support of Palestine in this regard as "pro-Hamas" is really weird

Its as weird as any time people try to conflate multiple different things to justify banning all of it.

I can understand banning any of Hamas origin, and 1st amendment isnt protected online (you can be censored for going against ToS, as long as they can prove it).

still, pro Palestine should not be a banable offense as it is helping helping who lost their homes and more due to this conflict

JoCrazy posted...

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have long banned terrorist organizations like Hamas. Now, however, the federal government is pressuring companies to ban Hamas-linked accounts and those of pro-Palestinian Americans.

I was speaking generally of this whole conflict.

has he called Fandom yet.

Does this also apply to Zionist settlers promoting violence against Palestinians?

Good thing Trump isn't in office when it comes to this.

loafy013 posted...

Don't see anything about limited pro-palestine content. They just don't want Hamas posting stuff on their services.

Besides that the fact that the government as literally tied any pro palestine people to them. The article literally states that they are going over pro palestine content .

We dont need Trump for fascism.

texanfan27 posted...

1st amendment isnt protected online (you can be censored for going against ToS, as long as they can prove it)

Problem is, in the example from the article, that is a violation of the First Amendment, because the government demanded that the speech be shut down.

And if the government is flexing on socmed companies to shut down anti-genocide rhetoric, that's a very bad thing.

(And, frankly, 90% of people I know had absolutely zero opinion on I/P until after Oct 7 and we began to see Israel's disproportionate retaliation. They started posting after the genocide started, so I'm disinclined to call most people as pro-Palestinian as much as I am to call them anti-genocide, given how that discussion has evolved.)

loafy013 posted...

Don't see anything about limited pro-palestine content. They just don't want Hamas posting stuff on their services.

Except they define "Hamas" as "anyone who thinks Palestinians are human beings".

Not Twitter has been a safe bed for literal Nazis thanks to Musk . And Biden didn't think of stopping that. But saying you should not genocide people have gotten him to go after Tik Tok and the other social media platforms that show the slightest interest in Dems. But you can't complain about Biden too much are people will say you are supporting Trump.