7amleh documented more violations by online platforms targeting Palestinian digital rights and freedom of expression.
Ed. Note: At the time of publishing this piece, we at IFEX are bearing witness to the atrocious escalation of violence in Palestine and Israel. In this worrisome context, we express our firm solidarity with IFEX members MADA, 7amleh, I’Iam and Visualizing Impact, and with our colleagues throughout the region, as the consequences of the conflict spread beyond their borders.
This statement was originally published on 7amleh.org on 19 October 2023.
In light of the recent escalations in the region, including the devastating bombing of “Al-Ahli Arab Hospital” in the heart of Gaza City, which resulted in the death of more than 500 Palestinians and the injury of hundreds, hate speech and incitement in Hebrew targeting Palestinians on social media is on the rise. In this context, 7amleh has documented over 103,000 instances of hate speech and/or incitement in Hebrew out of 120,000 posts collected between October 7th to the 18th using their recently developed “Violence Indicator“. The vast majority of these instances were found on “X”, which is allowing the spread of harmful content without sufficient moderation.
63% of the documented instances of hate speech and incitement were based on political affiliations and/or nationalist sentiments, and 34% were rooted in racist bias. The remaining instances included gender-based and religious violence, among others.
7amleh recently developed the “Violence Indicator,” a linguistic model that uses artificial intelligence technology to automatically and immediately monitor the spread of hate speech and violence on social media platforms in Hebrew targeting Palestinians. The findings are then presented on “7or – the Palestinian Digital Rights Violations Observatory”. 7amleh’s interactive data analytics display enables users to use the model as a tool for understanding how prevalent hate speech and incitement are on social media platforms.
7amleh documented an additional 701 violations that targeted Palestinian users and supporters of Palestinian rights since October 7 and until October 18, which have been submitted by users on 7or. Those submissions have been reviewed by 7amleh, and were escalated to the appropriate corresponding social media company. The violations include 286 cases of account restriction or account takedowns on Palestinian activists, in addition to 415 instances of hate speech and incitement. Among the targeted accounts are official pages of civil society organisations and independent media organisations. Those include Quds News Network, followed by more than 8 million users on Facebook, as well as the instagram page of Mutaz Azaiza, followed now by more than 4 million users. Mutaz Azaiza’s page faced several restrictions which were appealed. However, the facebook page of Quds News Network in Arabic got unpublished and permanently removed from the Meta platform.
7amleh also documented hate speech, incitement, and disinformation surrounding the bombing of “Al-Ahli Arab Hospital” on the night of October 17. 7amleh also documented more violations by online platforms aimed at silencing Palestinians and violating their digital rights and their rights to freedom of expression. This is done by limiting outreach, restricting accounts, as well as content removals and account suspensions.
It is worth noting that most violations aimed at silencing Palestinians occurred on Meta’s platforms (Instagram and Facebook).
At 7amleh, we emphasize that social media companies must not discriminate against Palestinian users. They should not restrict Palestinian content due to political pressure, and must commit to the removal of hate speech and incitement across all platforms, especially as this kind of speech translates into real-world violence committed against Palestinians.
7amleh encourages social media users to report any instances of digital rights violations including hate speech, incitement and spread of false news in the digital space to “7or” platform.
