Facebook Error Blocks Sharing of JVP-NYC Event

One of the notifications Facebook users received when trying to share the event

Echoing trends of censorship by Facebook and other online platforms, organizers of a theater and poetry event featuring personal stories from Palestinians and Jews were unable to share or post about the event on Facebook for almost three weeks, receiving a notification that the content violated Facebook’s standards.

The January 8 Reader’s Theater event, hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace-NYC, is called “Wrestling with Zionism.” The description on the Eventbrite page invites guests to:

Experience the personal stories of Muslim, Christian and secular Palestinians & Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Palestinian Jews from the West Bank, Tel Aviv, Syria, Chicago, Oklahoma and Brooklyn as well as poetry by special guest, Sara Abou Rashed. 

Starting December 12, when Facebook users tried to post and share links to the event, they received notifications that their posts violate Facebook’s community standards and include “content other people on Facebook have reported as abusive.” 

Though the notification included a link for users to report errors, the link stated that Facebook was not able to review individual reports, which provided organizers no clear way to appeal the ban. Organizers tried to contact Facebook on several occasions to resolve the issue and received no response. 

Palestine Legal later reached out to Facebook and learned that the event was “incorrectly flagged as malicious by an automated system.” Facebook lifted the ban on sharing the event on December 30 and told Palestine Legal that the error “was not due in any way to the content of the event.”

However, Facebook’s track record calls their explanation into question. Supporters of Palestinian freedom and equality have repeatedly reported having their content erroneously blocked on Facebook. 

After Facebook deleted the account of a popular Palestinian news site, author Ramzy Baroud collected stories of others who had received warnings and suspensions for pro-Palestinian speech on the platform. In 2017, the Guardian published slides from Facebook’s content moderation manuals describing “Zionists” as a globally protected vulnerable group. One slide showed that Facebook would delete posts threatening Zionists, but not those threatening “fat kids” or people with red hair.

Facebook has also been criticized for coordinating directly with the Israeli government and complying with censorship requests from various governments around the world.

Censorship of Palestinian voices has also been reported on other online platforms. Just this week, professor Rima Najjar sued Quora for banning her from the site weeks after she helped launch community spaces on Quora “for the exploration of Palestinian identity and issues important to Palestinians.” The lawsuit argues that Quora engaged in a pattern of censorship before ultimately banning her from the site, in violation of state and federal civil rights laws.