Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Content: Israel Requests Meta to Remove Over 90,000 Posts.

According to a recent article by Drop Site News, the Israeli government has intensified its attack on social media postings about Palestine, with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, cooperating extensively.

The study claims that the Israeli government "directly orchestrated a sweeping crackdown on posts on Instagram and Facebook that are critical of Israel—or even vaguely supportive of Palestinians."

According to DropSite News, which cited "internal Meta data," Meta has complied with 94% of Tel Aviv's requests for material removal since October 7, 2023.

According to reports, Meta has removed more than 90,000 posts overall in response to requests from the Israeli authorities.

According to the research, "Israel's campaign is unique because it has been successful in censoring speech in many countries outside of Israel."

"The AI program Meta is currently training to moderate content will base future decisions on the successful removal of content critical of Israel's genocide, so Israel's censorship project will reverberate long into the future," according to sources.

“Takedown requests (TDRs) allow individuals, organizations, and government officials to request the removal of content that allegedly violates Meta’s policies,” the report said.

95% of these requests fell under the category of "terrorism, violence, or incitement," and they were mainly directed at users in Arab and Muslim-majority nations.

Digital War

Shortly after The Grayzone released research revealing that over 100 current Meta workers are former Israeli soldiers or intelligence officers—some of whom enlisted in the IDF through a government program that recruits non-Israelis—the DropSite report was released.

According to the story, the tech company Meta employs over 100 former Israeli spies and IDF soldiers, including its head of AI policy, who served in the IDF through an Israeli government program that permits non-Israelis to enlist in the Israeli army.

The Grayzone stated that "Given that Israel has made extensive use of AI not just to conduct its genocide, but to establish its prior system of apartheid, surveillance, and occupation, Meta's recruitment of IDF AI specialists is particularly insidious." These former IDF members are distributed equally among Meta's US offices and its Tel Aviv office, and many of them, like Anderson, have a specialization in AI.

Concerns regarding the degree of pro-Israel influence within significant US-based technology companies have been raised by previous studies that have revealed similar tendencies at other digital titans, such as Google.

Israel is actively targeting pro-Palestinian content on the internet while simultaneously launching a military assault on the Gaza Strip.

Because postings, pages, and entire accounts are frequently removed for supposedly breaking ambiguous content restrictions, social media users and watchdog organizations have long accused sites like Facebook of systematically silencing Palestinian voices.

The part Meta plays in suppressing Palestinian stories

Leaked material from sources like Drop Site News, Al Mayadeen, and The Palestine Chronicle reveals an unprecedented attempt by Israeli authorities to stifle criticism of its actions during the Gaza conflict, revealing a concerted campaign to stifle critical narratives.

The Palestine Chronicle's live blog on April 12, 2025, highlights the severity of this crackdown by revealing that Meta deleted 90,000 entries in a single day at Israel's request. This figure illustrates a deliberate information control tactic, as does Al Mayadeen's claim of Israel's "directly orchestrated" attempts to stifle pro-Palestine narratives.

Unlike other governments, who often limit their attention to internal media, Israel's censorship efforts are notable since they target worldwide discussions rather than domestic information.

Control mechanisms: cooperation and automation

A troubling collaboration between Meta and the Israeli government is revealed by this censoring system. By providing the Israeli government with a legitimate avenue to carry out its widespread censorship effort, Meta did more than merely comply with takedown demands.

The evidence suggests involvement that goes beyond simple compliance, raising questions about Meta's alleged neutrality and potential connection with political objectives.

Artificial intelligence (AI) enhances operational performance and broadens the scope of censorship systems. According to posts on X, Meta's AI now automatically filters out criticism of Israel from throughout the world, possibly doing away with human oversight and reducing the rights of content creators to due process. This automatic technique expedites the removal of content, but it also raises the possibility of overzealous censorship, which suppresses reasonable dissent without investigation.

Another level of worry is raised by the potential for bias in the training data as well as the opaqueness of the criteria and programming of these algorithms.