Palestinians criticise social media censorship over Sheikh Jarrah

Social media users sharing content from Sheikh Jarrah complain their accounts have been censored, limited or shut down. Palestinians have slammed social media companies for shutting down their personal accounts and censoring content about attacks on residents and activists by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. #SaveSheikhJarrah — sara m. saleh | سارة صالح #SaveSheikhJarrah May 7, 2021 “Social media companies are silencing Palestinian voices while they’re fighting for their survival on the ground,” Marwa Fatafta, a policy member of the think tank Al Shabaka, told Al Jazeera. “This is not a one-off incident, it’s a sequel to wider systematic censorship and discrimination targeting mainly those who are marginalised and oppressed, often at the behest of oppressive regimes.” A communications officer from Instagram told Al Jazeera the content related to Sheikh Jarrah was impacted as result of a “widespread global technical issue” affecting the social media platform. Watch: Deputy Mayor of #Jerusalem, Arieh King, tell a Palestinian activist "it's a pity" he wan't shot in the head, last night in #SheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/AgLEXc1nLW — Oren Ziv May 7, 2021 Social media collusion The complicity between Israel and social media companies in regulating and censoring Palestinian content and accounts is well documented.