"Al Jazeera Arabic presenter Tamer Almisshal has had his Facebook profile deleted by Meta 24 hours after the programme Tip of the Iceberg aired an investigation into Meta’s censorship of Palestinian content titled The Locked Space.
The programme’s investigation, which aired on Friday, included admissions by Eric Barbing, former head of Israel’s cybersecurity apparatus, about his organisation’s effort to track Palestinian content according to criteria that included “liking” a photo of a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces."
Deplatforming journalists, or anyone, is a terrible thing to do.
This is the reason why Gab is better than Facebook.
Gab is cancer. Better stay away from bigotry-ridden websites.
Gab wouldn’t deletes Al jazeera presenter’s profile after showing criticising israel like Facebook did.
Oof. I just want to say as a Jew that is constantly trying to dispel the myth of Jewish media conspiracies, Zuck really isn’t doing us any favors here.
Well, not so much a conspiracy, but Israel is employing social media propaganda, similiar to the infamous russian “troll factories”. It was often very well noticeable on reddit, as sometimes two different accounts posted the exact same comment with pro Israeli talking points. Their main target is facebook and other large plattforms though.
Any sources on any of that?
I often saw this parroted on Reddit, though without sources. What I didn’t see, is what you described as “very well noticeable” - and I used Reddit a lot.
Anytime I look up this stuff I can only find relevant information from obscure websites which don’t list any sources. This honestly does seem like a conspiracy.
First and third links clearly state that these students are volunteers, and also a fairly small amount of them. (Also doesn’t seem like trolling necessarily)
Second link seems promising, but it offers almost no details, and its source is HaAretz, an Israeli publication which I personally don’t trust (also the source article is behind a paywall).
Last link is about a private company and seems only slightly related.
Not really strong evidence of Israel running “Russian troll factories”.
Does it matter, whether the people are volunteers, paid or coerced? The fact stands that Israel is making a concerted effort to influence social media in their favor.
I find it a bit silly, that you want proper sources and then just say you don’t trust a major Israeli newspaper without further explanation. Especially since the BBC deemed it credible as a source.
For the last link how is it “only slightly related?” It is a private company that is operating from Israel, run by ex-intelligence people, influencing elections world wide. This kind of things are not sold with a google add, but instead require extensive networks and contacts. It is implausible, that the company operated without the knowledge and approval of the Israeli government. Also the article states that the company was promoted on the website of the Israeli ministry of defense. Finally Israeli intelligence has proven competent in many activities around the globe, but in particular in regards to digital activities (stuxnet). There is no reason to belief that they wouldn’t have picked up on one of their former employees running these kind of activities.
I doubt that Israel makes no effort to influence social media.
I just think the effort made isn’t very big, and with the presented evidence this seems true. I don’t feel like looking through them again to pinpoint where exactly but some of the articles you shared flat out admit Israel isn’t very good at shaping public opinion.
Point 1 is kinda pedantic wouldn’t you say?
No.
The original comment in this subthread claimed Israel was running troll factories similar to Russia’s, and on a scale large enough for it to be noticeable on Reddit, while also claiming Reddit isn’t even the main focus of those trolls.
Point 1 basically goes to show that while Israel does attempt some social media influence, it appears to be at a far smaller scale then originally claimed.
In all honesty, I’d be surprised if there are many developed countries which don’t do this to some extent, so in my eyes singling out Israel in this case seems a bit weird.
Okay, I can see why that correction would maybe argue specifics against being 1:1 with Russian troll factories but even you just said the magic word: “similar to” which is obviously pretty loose, hence my distaste for the pedantics.
Overall, I agree though - most countries should be doing this just to counteract other countries doing this until we can start calling out ourselves for doing these things
change yourself, change the world and that
At this point it’s a given that any nation state with an interest in PR has their online troll teams.
And not all Jewish people support Israel! I have to assume many understand what’s going on and side with Palestine.
I’ve been to Jewish gatherings where they had duplicates of some food products because half of them insisted on eating an Israeli brand and half of them refused to.
He’s and asshole regardless of his lineage, not because of it. Just so you know someone else out here has a little grounding in reality.
Thanks, though unfortunately it’s not people like yourself (who understand such things) that worry me.
i still wait for the day when i can criticize the state of israel and some of it’s policies without getting branded as an antisemite.
Meta is a private company and can do whatever it wants. Nothing to see here. Yea…go ahead down vote me
I forgot no action can be criticized unless it’s literally illegal. Silly me.
Helping war criminals cover up their crimes is illegal under most countries jurisdictions.
It can, but that doesnt mean ít’s excused from criticism if it does something incredibly stupid and amoral.
This is true, and the reason people need to stop using social media as their source for news.
When a company has sophisticated algorithms ment to only show you things that will get you engaged - you are not getting unbiased news. Add Meta’s personal agendas on top of that and you get the shitshow that is facebook as a news source.
Thank you and hope the idiots down voting me can use common sense.
good
