Haniyeh killing: Meta apologises for deleting Malaysian prime minister's posts
Silicon Valley giant Meta apologised on Tuesday for deleting social media posts on Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's Facebook and Instagram accounts which expressed solidarity with Hamas following the assassination of the group's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last week.
A Meta spokesman told Reuters and AFP that the posts were removed due to "an operational error" and that the content has been restored with "the correct newsworthy label" attached.
On 31 July, Ibrahim posted a video recording of a phone call he held with a Hamas official to offer his condolences over Haniyeh's killing. He also posted a picture from his last meeting with Haniyeh in Qatar in May, along with a message of condolences.
As of 12pm on Tuesday, the posts were restored but with a notice that read: "This post goes against our Community Guidelines but has been left on Instagram for public awareness."
The US social media giant, which runs Facebook, Instagram and a host of other platforms, designates Hamas, the Palestinian movement that governs Gaza, as a "dangerous organisation" and bans content praising the group.
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Meta also uses a mix of automated detection and human review to remove or label graphic visuals.
Tuesday's decision came a day after Malaysia demanded an explanation from Meta over the content removal, with the prime minister's office saying it viewed the company's actions as "discriminatory, unjust and a blatant suppression of free expression".
This was Meta's second run-in with the Malaysian government, following a similar incident in May, in which posts by Anwar about his meeting with Haniyeh were restored after being taken down in error.
Middle East Eye contacted Meta for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Rights groups and pro-Palestine advocates have repeatedly accused Meta of censoring pro-Palestine voices during the ongoing war on Gaza. A December 2023 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accused the company of a "pattern of undue removal and suppression of protected speech".
The report alleged that Meta had removed or suppressed hundreds of pro-Palestine posts due to flawed content moderation policies, poor implementation and "undue government influence".
When Meta was accused of suppressing pro-Palestinian speech last year, the company blamed technical bugs, saying: "This bug affected accounts equally around the globe and had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content - and we fixed it as quickly as possible."
However, the Hampton Institute (HI) think tank accused Instagram and Facebook of "actively blocking posts about the factual history of Israel/Palestine".
At the time, MEE asked Meta what steps were being taken to ensure access to Palestine-related content and whether the company was suppressing pro-Palestinian content, but was referred to a newsroom post on 13 October.
The statement said that Meta's policies are applied equally and that "there is no truth to the suggestion that we are deliberately suppressing voice".
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