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Facebook employees demand changes around Palestinian content

Letter calls to order a third-party audit of moderation actions round Arab and Muslim content

Jerusalem24 – Nearly 200 Facebook workers have signed an open letter calling for corporate management to handle issues that pro-Palestine voices on the social media platform are being suppressed by content material moderation programs.

The letter, seen by the Financial Times, urges Facebook to introduce new measures to make sure pro-Palestinian content material isn’t unfairly taken down or downranked, as some employees and critics claimed occurred throughout the current battle in Gaza.

It calls on Facebook’s administration to order a third-party audit of moderation actions round Arab and Muslim content, and to refer a publish by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing Palestinian civilians as terrorists to its impartial oversight board.

It additionally requires an internal inspection to “examine and tackle potential biases” in its human and automatic content material moderation programs.

Posted on the corporate’s inside message board by an worker group referred to as ‘@Palestinians, @Muslims&Allies, it had garnered at the least 174 anonymous signatures by Tuesday afternoon.

“As highlighted by workers, the press and members of Congress, and as mirrored in our declining app retailer ranking, our customers and neighborhood at giant really feel that we’re falling quick on our promise to guard open expression across the state of affairs in Palestine,” the letter mentioned.

“We imagine Fb can and will do extra to know our customers and work on rebuilding their belief.”

The letter additionally calls on Facebook to hire Palestinian expertise, publish extra knowledge on government-sponsored requests for content material takedowns, and make clear its insurance policies around anti-Semitism.

In the course of the Gaza battle, Facebook’s algorithms had labelled phrases generally utilized by Palestinian customers, such as “martyr” and “resistance,” as incitements to violence and eliminated posts about the al-Aqsa mosque after mistakenly associating the third holiest web site in Islam with a terrorist organization; in keeping with US media stories.

The Financial times, on Sunday, reported that Facebook-owned Instagram was altering its algorithm to indicate extra viral and present affairs posts following issues that customers re-sharing posts concerning the escalation in Gaza were not reaching large viewers.

“We all know there have been a number of points that impacted individuals’ skill to share on our apps. Whereas we fastened them, they need to by no means have occurred within the first place and we’re sorry to anybody who felt they couldn’t carry consideration to vital occasions, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice,” Face book mentioned on Tuesday.

“We design our insurance policies to present everybody a voice whereas maintaining them protected on our apps and we apply them equally, no matter who’s posting or what their private beliefs are.”

Mohammad Hamayel

Ramallah based journalist, Mohammad graduated from Al-Quds University with a B.A. in Media and Television. He has covered the 2015 Jerusalem Intifada as well as the Great March of Return for international media outlets. currently an editor/presenter at Jerusalem24. A UN alumni and a follower of global events and politics, especially American affairs.

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