Meta notified Pilbara for Palestine (PfP) on January 18 that the page “impersonates a business”. It was permanently removed on January 28.
How a community campaign page, with such a name, where news articles were posted and solidarity events were promoted was doing this, was never explained. Nor was there a means of appeal.
Social media censorship of pro-Palestinian pages is not new, nor is the redirecting of online traffic away from progressive causes towards content more profitable to platform owners.
Since the Gaza invasion in 2023, many social media users have resorted to intentionally misspelling “Gaza”, “Israel” and “genocide” to try to get past the gate-keeping algorithms.
PfP, with its few hundred followers, was a small fish, but an easy target. Through the page, locals had successfully promoted numerous public solidarity events with Palestine for more than a year, including rallies, forums and film screenings.
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However, the ramifications go beyond that: my ability to share on social media groups and post as an administrator to other pages, including Healthcare Workers for Palestine WA and Socialist Alliance, was also restricted.
Online organising is an important tool.
But it means we need to campaign hard to democratise these online spaces to stop the tech billionaire owners from censoring and misinforming.
[Chris Jenkins is active in Pilbara for Palestine and Socialist Alliance.]