Alwaght- Facebook has suspended numerous Palestinian accounts after a deal with the Israeli regime, Sputnik news site reported.
The new deal with Tel Aviv claims to tackle anti-Israeli incitements, however in practice it is blocking free information flow by suspending media accounts with millions of followers.
The personal Facebook accounts of four editors from the Shehab News Agency and three editors from the Quds News Network were disabled by the social media network last week without explanation. They all report out of the Palestinian occupied territories as a media platform with millions of daily likes.
The suspended accounts violated no Facebook publication standard, Nisreen Al-Khatib, journalist and translator at the Quds News Network said.
The internet giant, however, resumed access to the pages after a widespread protest by the owners and the followers.
"Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We're very sorry about this mistake," the company said Monday in a statement, without providing further detail.
Despite the Facebook memo, both journalists believe the suspension was a direct result of the deal with the Israeli regime as its Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked says Facebook granted 95 percent of 158 requests submitted to the company over the past four months to ban content that was considered "incitement."
Large number of Palestinian news platforms faced similar unexplained suspensions including the popular Gaza24. The action was faced with extensive protest over the other social media, Twitter, where users denounce the act using the #FBCensorsPalestine.
Palestinians recognizing the necessity of social media freedom are concerned that the Israeli campaign will result in a censorship of free expression, and call on users to protest Facebook by boycotting it for two hours on Sunday.
