Zoom & Big Tech Censor Online Palestine Classes

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Issues: Censorship, Academic Freedom, False Accusations

In September 2020, right-wing Israel advocacy groups pressured tech companies to censor an online class featuring Palestinian activist Leila Khaled.

The class was jointly organized by San Francisco State University (SFSU) professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa. It featured a panel of Palestinian, Black, Jewish, and South African activists.

The open classroom event was scheduled to take place on Zoom, the platform that SFSU was using to teach classes during the pandemic. But the tech company threatened to terminate the license for the entire California State University system if the class included Khaled, because of her involvement in two hijackings fifty years ago and her alleged role in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The professors cited their academic freedom and refused to change the content of their lesson. Zoom responded by unilaterally canceling the class session, and SFSU failed to provide the professors with an alternative platform for the class to take place.

The professors attempted to livestream the class through off-campus Facebook and YouTube accounts, but those tech giants also blocked the stream, leaving students with no access to the class. 

In December 2020, Abdulhadi and Kinukawa filed a claim against SFSU for violating their rights and initiated a separate internal grievance process at the university in 2021.

In October 2021, the SFSU Faculty Hearing Committee found that the university had violated the professors’ academic freedom and called on the university to issue a public apology, a public letter of support for faculty with regards to academic freedom, and provide a site for rescheduling the event with Leila Khaled on an alternate platform, without interference.

In November, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney vetoed the decision, sparking widespread outcry from faculty around the country and calls for her to resign.

In the aftermath of these events, Palestine Legal received multiple reports of social media users having accounts suspended, placed under review, or partially disabled for sharing the events or even posting about the censorship.

Solidarity events also canceled >>

In October 2020, on the one-month anniversary of the censored class, professors from across the country and around the world planned a series of solidarity events featuring a video of Leila Khaled.

Events at the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa and at New York University were blocked by Zoom, while eight events at other universities went ahead as scheduled.

Like SFSU, the University of Hawai‘I and NYU failed to pressure Zoom to respect academic freedom and failed to provide professors an adequate alternative that would allow them to go forward with live events. At both schools, the panels had to be recorded privately and posted online.

Zoom blocked a similar event at the University of California, Merced in April 2021.

Timeline >>

Aug. 28, 2020: San Francisco State University professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa announce that their respective departments, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) and Women & Gender Studies (WGS) are co-hosting an open classroom webinar entitled “Whose Narratives?: Gender, Justice & Resistance” on September 23, 2020. The event includes Palestinian activist Leila Khaled, an icon of the Palestinian revolutionary movement.

Sept. 14, 2020: The Lawfare Project, a right-wing, pro-Israel legal harassment group, sends Zoom a letter incorrectly claiming that providing video conferencing services for the class will violate federal material support for terrorism provisions by giving a platform to Ms. Khaled, who is alleged to be a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Sept. 17, 2020: Zoom’s Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Lynn Haaland writes to SFSU representatives suggesting that providing a platform to Ms. Khaled for a classroom event violates material support provisions and threatens the termination of Zoom accounts for the entire California State University (CSU) system should the event take place.

Sept. 18, 2020: SFSU Provost Jennifer Summit reaches out to the course professors, who confirm that Ms. Khaled is not speaking as a representative of the PFLP or receiving an honorarium or payment for her talk.

Sept. 21, 2020: Zoom’s compliance officer writes to CSU that the university has until the end of the day to confirm that Ms. Khaled is not an active member of the PFLP or face consequences for violating Zoom’s terms of service under the false claim that allowing Ms. Khaled to speak to a classroom will violate federal law.

Sept. 21, 2020: CSU’s deputy general counsel responds to Zoom that the university system protects the rights of free speech and academic freedom, that Ms. Khaled is not on any State Department list of prohibited individuals, and that the event does not violate material support provisions.

Sept. 21, 2020: Member of Congress Doug Lamborn writes to Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urging her to cut federal funding to SFSU for hosting the event.

Sept. 22, 2020: An app affiliated with the Israeli government encourages users to go on a “mission” to pressure CSU leadership to cancel the event.

Sept. 22, 2020: Zoom’s compliance officer informs CSU that the event violates Zoom’s terms of service and that the university must not use Zoom to host the open classroom event. When SFSU does not cancel the event, citing academic freedom, Zoom itself terminates the webinar. SFSU refuses to provide an alternative venue for the course, violating the academic freedom of the professors and students.

Sept. 22, 2020: Right-wing pro-Israel legal harassment group the Lawfare Project claims victory for canceling the open classroom event.

Sept. 23, 2020: Event organizers attempt to host the event on Facebook and YouTube. Facebook removes the event page and threatens to suspend the accounts of groups that promote the event. YouTube removes multiple streams of the classroom webinar minutes after it starts.

Oct. 2020: Universities and academic groups plan a National Day of Action Against the Criminalization and Censorship of Campus Speech in response to Zoom’s cancelation of the SFSU event. The Day of Action encourages faculty to host Palestine webinars on their university Zoom accounts featuring a recorded video from Palestinian activist Leila Khaled on October 23rd.

Oct. 8, 2020: After the Lawfare Project urges the federal government to investigate the SFSU event, a representative from the Department of Education responds that she forwarded the concerns to the Department of the Treasury and the State Department.

Oct. 19, 2020: Right-wing pro-Israel organization StandWithUs sends Zoom a letter urging the company to cancel at Oct. 23 lecture at the University of Hawai’i - Manoa. The request does not mention any of the other scheduled Day of Action events.

Oct. 21, 2020: Zoom unilaterally cancels the scheduled event at the University of Hawai'i two days before the webinar is set to take place.

Oct. 22, 2020: Palestine Legal and a coalition of civil rights groups send legal letters against Zoom’s censorship and violation of academic freedom to Zoom, the University of Hawai’i, NYU and the University of Massachusetts.

Oct. 23, 2020: Most of the National Day of Action Against the Criminalization and Censorship of Campus events take place successfully, but Zoom censors three university talks - at the University of Hawai’i, NYU, and the University of Leeds in England. NYU refuses to provide an alternative platform despite requests from the hosting faculty. Facebook also deletes an event at the University of Western Ontario within hours of it being posted, and organizers have their accounts immediately disabled.

Dec. 21, 2020: SFSU professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Tomomi Kinukawa file a government claim against the California State University system for violating their rights to free speech and academic freedom.

Apr. 9, 2021: AMED Studies announces an April 23 event titled “Whose Narratives? What Free Speech for Palestine?” co-organized virtually at SFSU and the University of California, Merced featuring Leila Khaled and Black, Jewish and South African activists from the censored 2020 event.

Apr. 13, 2021: Zoom issues a company policy statement claiming to support academic freedom in providing virtual classroom services. Separately, Facebook shuts down the page of AMED Studies.

Apr. 14, 2021: The Lawfare Project, a right-wing, pro-Israel legal harassment group, sends a letter to Zoom and the chancellor of UC Merced urging them to cancel the event.

Apr. 21, 2021: Member of Congress Doug Lamborn sends a letter to the chancellor of UC Merced implicitly threatening the university’s funding if it allows the event to take place.

Apr. 22, 2021: Zoom cancels the UC Merced event scheduled for the next day, and hastily organizes an event on antisemitism to take place at the same time, describing it as “counter programming.”

June 21, 2021: The Electronic Frontier Foundation files a Freedom of Information Act request for records from the State Department to find out whether the federal government directed technology platforms to censor Leila Khaled’s speech.

Sept. 29, 2021: Dr. Abdulhadi and the AMED Studies program testify before a faculty panel in the first of two grievance hearings against SFSU for violating academic freedom by permitting the censorship of Dr. Abdulhadi and Dr. Kinukawa’s classes.

Oct. 14, 2021: A faculty panel at SFSU agrees that SFSU violated Dr. Abdulhadi’s academic freedom. The panel recommends that SFSU apologize to Dr. Abdulhadi and provide an alternative venue to reschedule the censored event.

Nov. 5, 2021: SFSU president Lynn Mahoney overturns the faculty panel’s decision and refuses to apologize for violating Dr. Abdulhadi’s academic freedom.

Jan. 20, 2022: The Electronic Frontier Foundation sues the State Department over its failure to respond to their request for files related to the censorship of Leila Khaled under the Freedom of Information Act.

Apr. 12, 2022: A second faculty panel at SFSU holds a grievance hearing over SFSU’s violation of Dr. Kinukawa’s academic freedom.

Documents >>

Statements and Action Alerts >>

Drs. Rabab Abdulhadi, Tomomi Kinukawa, et. al: We Will Not Be Silenced!: In solidarity with Palestinian sumoud and intellectual integrity

Palestine Legal:

ACLU: Time and Again, Social Media Giants Get Content Moderation Wrong

American Association of University Professors:

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

International Campaign to Defend Professor Rabab Abdulhadi:

Jewish Voice for Peace:

Middle East Studies Association: MESA Statement on Academic Freedom and Corporate Control of Digital Platforms

National Students for Justice in Palestine:

Palestinian Feminist Collective: Permission to narrate Palestinian feminisms

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel:

Zoom: On Academic Freedom for our Higher Education Users

Media >>

972 Magazine: From Palestine to China, Zoom has no business censoring dissent (Oct. 26, 2020)

Academe Blog: Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook Censor Event at SF State (Sept. 23, 2020)

Artforum: NYU Professors Accuse Zoom of Censoring Political Speech (Oct. 27, 2020)

Buzzfeed News: Zoom Deleted Events Discussing Zoom “Censorship” (Oct. 24, 2020)

The Electronic Intifada:

Inside Higher Ed:

The Intercept:

Middle East Eye:

Mondoweiss:

The New York Times: What Zoom Does to Campus Conflicts Over Israel and Free Speech (Jan. 22, 2021)

NPR: 'Welcome To The Party, Zoom': Video App's Rules Lead To Accusations Of Censorship (Nov. 23, 2020)

The Palestine Chronicle: ‘Whose Narratives?’: On the Suppression of Palestinian Speech (Sept. 28, 2020)

Slate: Is Zoom More Like the Phone or Facebook? (Dec. 18, 2020)

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: Google, Apple and Social Media are Helping Israel Commit Politicide (Dec. 6, 2020)

Learn more >>

Read more about censorship and backlash efforts against Palestine advocates:

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Guest User

Steven Salaita: Professor Fired for Gaza Tweets

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Professor Steven Salaita Fired by University of Illinois for Gaza Tweets

Credit: Jeffrey putney

Credit: Jeffrey putney

In August 2014, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) terminated the tenured appointment of Steven Salaita, a professor hired by the American Indian Studies department. Salaita was fired after he published angry and sarcastic twitter messages regarding the brutality of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The termination occurred a mere two weeks before he was scheduled to begin teaching and after both parties had announced the appointment; Salaita and his wife had resigned from their previous jobs and prepared to move.  

In a letter to the Chancellor and the Board, Palestine Legal, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights and other civil rights advocates, argued that UIUC’s action not only ignored the university’s obligation to protect the academic freedom of its faculty, but also threatened to chill academic speech on matters of public concern across the country. 

Records obtained by journalists indicate that the Chancellor was responding to the concerns of big donors, including one who has given hundreds of thousands to the university and is on the board of Hillel. Other evidence points to the involvement of large Israel advocacy organizations like the Jewish Federation in drumming up complaints against Salaita. 

Outrage from the academic community at this utter disregard for the free speech rights of appointed faculty led more than 5,000 academics to boycott UIUC,  over sixteen UIUC departments to take votes of no confidence in the Chancellor, and students to campaign to get Salaita reinstated.  

Salaita filed a lawsuit against the University on January 29, 2015, for violations of his First Amendment and due process rights, breach of contract, and other tort claims. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Loevy and Loevy represent Salaita in the litigation.  

Detailed information about the case, including court documents, letters from academic and civil rights organizations, an can be found at CCR’s case page.  

Relevant Documents

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Hannah Lane

UC Student Union Boycott Challenged

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University of California: Graduate Student Union’s Right to Boycott Challenged 

In December 2014, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865 – a union representing 13,000 graduate student instructors at the University of California - voted to support the movement for boycott and divestment of Israel, becoming the first major labor union in the U.S. to support BDS. The previous July, the union leadership had passed a general statement in support of BDS. The final statewide membership vote favored a resolution that called on the UC to divest, and called on the International UAW to divest. 65% of voting members supported the resolution for divestment. The resolution also asked members to take an individual anonymous pledge to support the academic boycott, for which 52% of voting members (1136 individual graduate students) voted yes. The vote triggered significant backlash and legal threats.

Political opponents raised false accusations that the resolution would constitute unlawful discrimination and would violate university policy. An opposition website argued, “BDS is potentially illegal,” and claimed the union would be subject to a lawsuit, citing legal threats made against the American Studies Association. The same opposition group circulated a letter to the President of the International UAW falsely claiming that the union’s support for the academic boycott “bars people with Israeli citizenship from joining the union.” These accusations mischaracterized the resolution, ignored the union’s emphatic statement of opposition to all forms of discrimination, and ignored the union’s clear explanation that the boycott targets institutions, not individuals. In response to legal threats, Palestine Legal explained that the union was clearly engaging in First Amendment protected speech and that the boycott did not call for discriminatory action against individuals.

Shortly before the vote, the American Center for Law and Justice sent a letter threatening legal action to the local union leadership, the UAW international, and the University of California alleging the same violations of discrimination law, union law, and university policy. The letter threatened union leaders with “individual liability.” Palestine Legal again confirmed that these claims were baseless because there was no unlawful action, no possibility of individual liability, and the First Amendment protects the union’s action.

In addition to the direct threats against the union and union officials, off-campus organizations like the AMCHA Initiative and the Brandeis Center targeted the statewide UC administration with demands that the university prohibit graduate-student instructors from discussing BDS in the classroom. The AMCHA Initiative generated “over a hundred emails,” according to a letter from the University of California, complaining that the union's activity supporting boycott and divestment violates UC policy on what can be discussed in the classroom.

The university responded to external pressure in September 2014, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, by forwarding AMCHA’s letter to the chancellors of all nine UC campuses. The message from the UC President’s office was vague – it listed policies that govern the conduct of graduate student instructors in the classroom. But given that the university forwarded AMCHA’s call for censorship, the university’s letter could be reasonably construed as a direction to chancellors to monitor and suppress discussion of boycott and divestment. At least one graduate student reported changing course material to avoid relevant content related to Israel/Palestine due to ambiguity over whether the university would prohibit teaching the subject.

Palestine Legal continues to advocate within the UC system to mitigate the chilling effect of attacks on Palestine advocacy and to protect the rights of faculty and students to engage in critical discussion.

Relevant Documents

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Hannah Lane