'Digital Apartheid': Meta lets Israeli settlers profit from terror attacks against Palestinians

Meta Platforms, the American company that runs and owns social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, allows Israeli settler groups to profit from anti-Palestinians content, while blocking monetization for the accounts of Palestinians and limiting their reach, a report says.

A new investigation by the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh) found that extremist Jewish groups such as the Hilltop Youth, sanctioned by the US, UK, and other nations for their involvement in violent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, continue to generate revenue through Facebook and Instagram.

The report presented samples of monetized Israeli pages that "promote illegal outposts, justify settler violence, mock Palestinian victims, call for forced displacement, or celebrate destruction and genocide in Gaza."

Meta's moderation systems still permit these groups, which use platforms to organize and fundraise for illegal settlement activities, to receive revenue despite committing violence and violating the company's own policies.

Factbox: Is Meta facilitating Israel’s AI-aided bombing of Palestinians in Gaza

Reports reveal that Israeli AI-assisted systems, which rely on inputs provided by Meta’s WhatsApp, have played a key role in the regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Palestinian accounts of well-known journalists and human rights advocates are subject to systematic censorship and “digital erasure.”

7amleh documented thousands of instances where Palestinian accounts were shadow-banned, restricted, or permanently deleted for showing the reality of life under Israeli occupation.

This discrepancy creates a "monetization blockade" that prevents Palestinian creators from earning revenue based on their geographic location.

"This reality creates a dual system: on one hand, Palestinian digital and economic participation is suppressed; on the other, pages that promote settlement activity, violence, and incitement against Palestinians are financially rewarded," the report concluded.

By allowing sanctioned groups to profit while suppressing the narratives of those reporting from the ground, Meta is accused of facilitating a "digital apartheid" in West Asia.

7amleh called for an independent audit of Meta's Hebrew-language moderation and an end to the discriminatory policies that silence Palestinian civil society while enabling settler violence to flourish.

Violence by Israeli forces and extremist settlers has escalated across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, when Israel launched the genocidal war against Gaza.

Israeli attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 1,154 Palestinians and wounded about 11,750 since then.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community views the settlements as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on occupied territories.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in several resolutions.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of historical Palestine illegal. The ICJ demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.

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