As Israeli airstrikes effectively eliminated internet access in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, a media company in Europe was pushing its own initiative to limit online news about civilian casualties in Palestine.
The Intercept's Daniel Bogoslo reported that Ebady, Europe's largest news aggregation app, issued directives to color the company's coverage of the war in Gaza with pro-Israel sentiments, according to interviews with employees and internal documents obtained by the site.
"Abdai" is the largest news aggregation application in Europe (communication sites)
The leadership at Ebadi, a subsidiary of Germany-based publishing giant Axel Springer, has issued instructions to prioritize the Israeli perspective and minimize Palestinian civilian deaths in coverage, according to employees.
"We can't pay anything about the number of Palestinian dead or victims, without highlighting information about Israel higher in the story," one employee told the website, noting that notifications and alerts sent to millions of phones were pushed back.
Widespread
discomfort The employees, who asked not to be identified to protect their livelihoods, said there was widespread discomfort across the company about the moves.
Julia Sommerfield, representative of Axel Springer, said, "We strongly reject your indirect allegations. We did not direct our journalists to ignore civilian casualties in Gaza, we did not ask our editors to manipulate news coverage, and the company's management was not involved in any editorial decisions, as the editorial guidelines of ebadi are based on the journalistic principles and basics of Axel Springer, (publicly available), in reference to the company's statement of values.
According to employees, the high esteem that Ebadi's senior officials hold for Israel has been evident in daily communications, such as in the company's Slack app, where an Israeli flag appears next to the avatar of Ebddie CEO Thomas Hirsch. (However, Ebadi did not respond to The Intercept's direct request for comment.)
Ahlam Muhtaseb, a professor of media studies at California State University, said when asked about Ebadi's internal guidelines, "There is a very ridiculous media campaign to reject, hide and hide any Palestinian sympathy." "The one-sided narrative of the Israeli victim requires the approval of media organizations and the U.S. government itself."
According to employees interviewed by The Intercept, Abadi, in her directives, warned its employees not to publish any headlines that could be "misunderstood" as pro-Palestinian. Comments by Israeli politicians dehumanizing Palestinians were to be worded in language emphasizing the scale and brutality of Hamas's attacks on Israel. Among the directives, Palestinian armed groups should not be cited in the headlines.
Supporting the Jewish People According to the employees, the company also gave instructions, in line with Alex Springer's mission "fundamentals" statement, to support the Jewish people and Israel's right to exist.
The Intercept pointed out that the Ebadi app, first released in 2016, serves more than 30 countries. It has tens of millions of users, thanks to a deal with Samsung that pre-loads it on its devices.
Axel Springer publishes German newspapers such as Bild, Die Welt and the Polish tabloid Fact, among many other European headlines. In the United States, the company owns a majority stake in news site Insider and bought Politico in 2021.
The German state's crude pro-Israel stance could play a role in shaping the Axel Springer pro-Israel line, the Intercept concluded, citing the German government's decision to criminalize BDS – the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for violating Palestinian rights – "pro-Palestinian rhetoric, and equating any anti-Zionist criticism with anti-Semitism."