29 May - Noting Articles

 Changes in Blogger have made revisions to Noted Articles a matter of coding changes rather than using WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet . Not happening. Short of erasing content we are stuck with a static display. But, there are still  Noted Articles happening. Perhaps a change to Livejournal is in order. There certainly are enough Noted Articles there !

Despite considerations of language, this looks interesting. https://twitter.com/LinahAlsaafin

Amid Israeli–Palestinian Violence, Facebook Employees Are Accusing Their Company Of Bias Against Arabs And Muslims

JOURNALISTS IN AUSTRALIA CENSURED FOR DEMANDING BETTER COVERAGE OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

At least a dozen journalists were asked to remove their signatures from an open letter criticizing reporting on the region. Some were also told their contracts might not be renewed.

 “Many of us are seeking change but lack sufficient power in our organisations to push back against the status quo. We believe that the coverage of Palestine must be improved, that it should no longer prioritise the same discredited spokespeople and tired narratives, and that new voices are urgently needed.”

Staffers at the Guardian Australia represented by MEAA also issued a statement Friday standing in support with colleagues at SBS who had faced backlash for signing the letter. “Guardian Australia MEAA members were appalled to hear reports this week that staff members at SBS have been pressured to remove their signatures from an open letter urging balanced coverage of Palestinian perspectives in the current Middle East conflict,” they wrote. “Journalists are routinely subjected to pressure and intimidation regarding support for Palestine. This intimidation directly conflicts with the media code of ethics, as it prevents journalists from exercising their right to express a political identity that is distinct from their employer without penalty in their working lives. As union members, we oppose attempts to intimidate or discipline any journalists for engaging in public discourse.”

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Canadian journalists circulated a similar open letter on the same day. Several signatories were reprimanded by management or completely taken off coverage of the region, The Intercept reported. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sent an email to staff Friday addressing the letter as a “conflict of interest” and advising that journalists on staff who signed it would be taken off coverage of the region.

CBC staff also received an email last week reminding them of CBC guidelines not to use the word “Palestine” in coverage. “Hey gang, Just a reminder – if you’re doing any reporting on the conflict in the Middle East, please be sure to read our Middle East glossary in the language guide. In particular, I’m seeing Palestine in some of our communication and rough draft,” CBC News Toronto Executive Producer Laura Green wrote. “We do not use Palestine to refer to the West Bank or Gaza. It’s ok to use clips from protesters saying it but we should not, as there is no modern country of Palestine.” Green added that it is good practice to “avoid using Palestine colloquially in our own exchanges,” as to reduce the risk that someone might “accidentally write or say it in something that is published or broadcast.” The email also included CBC guidelines that advised writing “Palestinian militants in Gaza” instead of “Hamas,” unless referring to an action claimed by the group.

Israel-Palestine: How social media was used and abused

As ceasefire agreed, tech giants come under spotlight over censorship, disinformation and manipulation concerns from past two weeks

Mona el-Kurd, a journalist and Sheikh Jarrah resident who faces eviction from her family home, briefly had her Instagram account suspended as she documented daily abuses taking place. Her brother Mohamed el-Kurd also had content removed over alleged “hate speech”, even though he said he was simply filming police violence with no text commentary.

Sheikh Jarrah residents complained of their Instagram stories receiving less engagement and fewer views for unexplained reasons. Meanwhile, over at Instagram’s parent company Facebook, the over 130,000 member group “Save Sheikh Jarrah” was temporarily disabled for “going against community standards”.

Questions were also raised on Twitter when Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti’s account was suspended while she was reporting from a Sheikh Jarrah solidarity demonstration in the occupied West Bank. Twitter later told Vice that the decision was taken by accident - though it failed to clarify what specific part of its terms of services it initially believed Barghouti had breached. 

“The restrictions and censorship have a far reaching impact on people's ability to communicate, to organise and to share information,” Marwa Fatafta, Middle East and North Africa policy manager at Access Now, told MEE. 

“When you are locked out of your account or your content is being removed, clearly this violates your ability to exercise your right to freedom of expression online.” 

On Instagram, the hashtag “Al-Aqsa” was temporarily hidden, because there were reports of “some content that may not meet Instagram’s community guidelines,” according to the notification users received.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, blamed content takedowns on an “a widespread global technical issue not related to any particular topic”.

However, it appears the hashtags were blocked because the platform’s content moderation system mistakenly associated al-Aqsa - the third holiest site in Islam - with a terrorist organisation, according to internal employee communications seen by Buzzfeed. 

Many rights groups have commented that any censorship from social media giants could amount to the destruction of evidence in war crimes documentation, which the International Criminal Court is currently monitoring in relation to the recent violence.

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This is evidence to confirm that the digital discrimination that we Palestinians are exposed to in the digital space is not a technical glitch,” Mona Shtaya of 7amleh told MEE. “But rather the result of systematic efforts by the Israeli authorities to silence the human rights activists' voices and to influence the tech companies policies related to content moderation”.

A coalition of digital rights organisations have called on Twitter and Facebook to provide detailed data on requests submitted by the cyber unit and to be transparent on its decision making process regarding content removal. 

In addition, a Palestinian data rights group, two news agencies and a translator have filed a legal complaint with Facebook, accusing it of censoring their posts and, in some cases, shutting down their accounts in violation of the company's own policies.

The 14-page complaint, sent to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and seen by Middle East Eye, gives the company 21 days to explain why posts and accounts were shut down until further action, including potential litigation, is taken.

According to 7amleh, 54% of survey participants in its “Fake News in Palestine” report identified Israeli authorities as the main source of fake news. The research also found that there was a 58% rise in fake news during Israeli attacks on Palestinians.