Facebook Threatens to Delete Palestine Chronicle Page, Censors Its Staff

Palestine Chronicle editors have been notified that the page could be restricted or taken down. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

After recently denying Palestine Chronicle Editor, Ramzy Baroud, his ‘admin’ status on the Palestine Chronicle Facebook page, other Palestine Chronicle editors have been notified that the page could be restricted or taken down entirely. 

“I received a notification on Monday, December 12, telling me that my Facebook profile account has been restricted, and that ‘multiple restrictions’ have been imposed on my account,” Palestine Chronicle Managing Editor, Romana Rubeo said. 

The reason behind the warning is a Palestine Chronicle photo that shows a Hamas fighter wearing a Lions’ Den insignia. 

The following day, another warning followed, this time targeting the Palestine Chronicle page itself. 

“The other notification arrived on Tuesday, warning that our page is ‘at risk of being unpublished, and has reduced distribution and other restrictions, due to continued Community Standards violations’,” Rubeo added.

The reason was the same as above, the use of photos of Palestinian fighters, or ordinary Palestinians carrying posters of Palestinian fighters. 

“This is outrageous because we are a newspaper, registered in the United States as an educational organization,” Palestine Chronicle Editor, Ramzy Baroud said. “We publish images and videos that are consistent with the news of the day or correspond to the features and commentary we post.” 

Baroud added, “Imagine the New York Times being restricted for using images of fighters belonging to an organization that is deemed terrorist by the US State Department. It is industry standard that you do that. Otherwise, it is just bad journalism.” 

That logic didn’t spare Baroud’s own pages, as he was denied access to several Facebook pages pertaining to his books and speaking tours, and eventually to the Palestine Chronicle itself. 

The Palestine Chronicle is not the only target of the anti-Palestinian practices of Facebook. The popular Palestinian English and French publication, however, has been placed under relentless scrutiny by Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. 

In December 2021, an independent investigation launched by Human Rights Watch found that “Facebook has wrongfully removed and suppressed content by Palestinians and their supporters, including about human rights abuses carried out in Israel and Palestine during the May 2021 hostilities.”

“In addition to removing content based on its own policies, Facebook often does so at the behest of governments. The Israeli government has been aggressive in seeking to remove content from social media,” the report continued.

In September 2022, a report by Facebook itself illustrated how the social media giant constantly violates “the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination, and therefore (..) the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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2 Comments

  1. FB is a rigged game that serves the Zionist machine. (Is there a game in the USA that is not rigged?) I deleted my FB account last year and have not regretted it for a moment.

  2. The information war is a very important war for israel and it seems to be losing control, at last.
    The only tactics left to them , with their cyber unit 8200 is to try to
    ban ,threaten or intimidate to try to silence their ‘ enemies ‘
    This happens also on youtube as I have found out recently

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