How Meta restricted news in Palestinian territories | BBC News

Palestinian news outlets have seen a steep drop in audience engagement on their Facebook pages since October 2023.

BBC News Arabic and BBC World Service analysis of more than 100,000 Facebook posts shows that news organisations based in Palestinian territories have seen a 77% drop in engagement since the start of the war in Gaza.

The first comprehensive data analysis by territory since the start of the war on Gaza.

Analysis of similar pages from Israel and neighbouring Arabic speaking countries shows a rise in engagement – the term used for likes, reactions, comments and shares.

It comes after a year of Palestinians complaining that they are being so called ‘Shadow banned’.

On Facebook’s sister platform, Instagram, exclusive access to leaked documents exposes how a change was made to Instagram’s algorithm at the start of the war in Gaza, targeting Palestinian users only.

Meta confirmed changes to Instagram’s algorithm were made, and says “temporary product and policy measures” were adopted on Facebook in response to the conflict.

But denies deliberately silencing Palestinian voices and stands by its decision to alter how many people see content from Facebook Pages on safety grounds.

A BBC News Arabic and Specialist Hub collaboration.

Reporter: Joe Tidy
Lead Journalist: Ahmed Nour, additional journalism by Yara Farag
Producer: Natalie Merzougui, additional producing by Rehab Ismail
Assistant Editor: Sarah Saey
Graphic designers: Mark Edwards and Joe Payne
Video Editor: Mohammad Homouda, additional editing by Munira Mohamed
Camera Operators: Shady Altbateby, Kevin McGregor, David Murphy, Marek Polaszewski

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