Meta has inserted the word “terrorist” into the profiles of some Palestinian Instagram users.
Meta has apologized for inserting the word “terrorist” into the profile bios of some Palestinian users. According to The guard, the issue affected users with the word “Palestinian” in English on their profiles, along with the Palestinian flag emoji and the Arabic phrase “alhamdulillah” – which translates to “praise be to God” in English. However, when they clicked ‘see translation’, viewers were presented with an English translation that read: ‘Praise God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.’ This issue was brought to attention by Tikok user ytkingkhan, who tested the phrase on his Instagram account.
Now, after the TikTok user’s video went viral online, Meta apologized for adding “terrorists” to the bios of some Palestinian Instagram users. The company said it has resolved an issue “that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations” in some of its products. “We sincerely apologize that this happened,” a Meta spokesperson said The guard.
This comes especially at a time when Meta is facing accusations of suppressing content expressing support for the Palestinians during the Israel-Gaza war. According to the BBCSeveral users have stated that they have been ‘shadowbanned’ on Instagram due to pro-Palestinian posts. They also accused the social media company of downgrading their content, making it less likely to appear in others’ feeds.
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Meta, on the other hand, has said that since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, it has introduced several measures “to address the spike in the spread of harmful and potentially harmful content on our platforms.” A blog post on Wednesday said there was “no truth in the suggestion that we are deliberately suppressing anyone’s voice.”
The company said that while content praising Hamas or violent and explicit content is banned, mistakes can be made when censoring other content and users should appeal against them. Furthermore, it also added that there had been a bug this week that prevented reels and posts that had been reshared from appearing in people’s Instagram Stories, “leading to significantly reduced reach” – but said that this problem was not limited to reports about Israel and Gaza.
In particular, the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has put pressure on online platforms to provide the public with accurate information about the conflict. Several prominent people have also urged online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and
