Meta’s Israel policy chief pushed for removal of pro-Palestinian Instagram posts: Report
Meta's Israel policy chief, who is an ex-senior Israeli government official, advocated for the social media giant to censor the Instagram accounts of the pro-Palestinian group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), according to a report this week by The Intercept.
Jordana Cutler, Meta's Israel and Jewish diaspora policy chief, had flagged several SJP posts in content escalation channels at Meta - which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - as well as other posts opposing Israel's foreign policy positions.
Pro-Israel groups and the Israeli government have been targeting anti-Zionist groups like SJP, as well as Jewish Voice for Peace, accusing them of being sympathetic to terrorist groups and fomenting support for terrorism on US college campuses for their support of Palestinians amid Israel's ongoing war on Gaza.
The Intercept reported that it had reviewed internal documents showing Cutler advocated that Meta remove a JVP post on Instagram that promoted a reading list, including authors associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
The PFLP is a US-designated terrorist group. The DFLP was delisted as a US-designated terrorist group in 1999 but remains a terror group according to Meta guidelines.
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Cutler also lobbied Meta to remove an SJP post on Leila Khaled, a PFLP member known for her decades of activism. She later became a symbol of Palestinian resistance after she hijacked a Trans World Airlines plane heading from Rome to Tel Aviv in 1969.
Cutler also regularly flagged posts belonging to the University of California-Los Angeles chapter of SJP, alleging the group was tied to violent protests on campus. The group was involved in peaceful demonstrations on campus, which turned violent after a pro-Israel mob attacked the pro-Palestinian protesters.
Cutler also requested that Meta delete non-student-related content, such as a video uploaded to Instagram showing Palestinians in Gaza cheering on an Iranian missile attack against Israel.
The report did not say whether any of Cutler's attempts at censoring pro-Palestinian content were successful. Cutler does not belong to the team at Meta responsible for moderating content.
Middle East Eye reached out to Meta for comment on this report but didn't receive a response by the time of publication.
Cutler joined Meta in 2016 after years of work in the Israeli government, including stints at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC and as an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In interviews about her job, Cutler has stated that she acts as a liaison between Meta and the Israeli government, whose perspectives she said she represents inside the company.
In 2020, the Jerusalem Post ran a profile on Cutler, describing her as “Our woman at Facebook”. The Post said she was hired to “represent Israel’s interests on the largest and most active social network in the world.”
Cutler said in an interview with the newspaper that her "job is to represent Facebook to Israel, and represent Israel to Facebook".
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