Palestinians have spoken out against Facebook’s, accusing it of giving in to Israeli government’s influence to suppress Palestinian narratives and adopting Israeli narratives of “inciting violence”.

Activists and journalists in Palestine launched a social media campaign against Facebook’s censorship of Palestinian content by using #FBblocksPalestine.

Sada Social Centre, who are driving the campaign have stated that Facebook infringement have increased dramatically including 139 incidents that have involved pages and accounts deleted, removal of posts, bans and pages sanctions as well as removing old posts with no warning or explanation.

Eyad Rifai, head of Sada Social Centre said, “the threat posed by Facebook against Palestinian content, and to make it public, as well as reveal the double-standard policy of Facebook management in dealing with Israeli and Palestinian incitement on its site”.

They say Palestinian content is in real danger, as Facebook has developed an algorithm which enables it to delete user posts if it includes the names of any of the Palestinian factions.

The group issued a statement protesting policies that violate international law and basic human rights of freedom of speech, belief and journalism.

Suspicion over Israeli-Facebook relations is nothing new. In September 2016, a Facebook delegation met Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan with the focus of improving  “cooperation against incitement to terror and murder”, according to a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office at the time.

A Gaza-based journalist told the American news agency the Media Line that his Facebook account was suspended in September. “I was just doing my job when I lost my account.”

“Facebook management sees using Palestinian symbols, names or political parties as incitement to violence, regardless of the nature of the work of the publisher.”

Palestinian activist Muhammad Kareem, who is an editor and translator at Palestine Trend News Agency, also had his Facebook page blocked after eight years. He took to Twitter to support the #FBblocksPalestine campaign saying Facebook’s actions were like “deleting a history of someone”