They target it with 1-star ratings on the app store

Pro-Palestinian Activists Campaign Against Facebook

  • Users' confidence in Facebook has decreased dramatically after the recent escalation between Israel and the Palestinians.

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  • Facebook spokesman Andy Stone: "Our policy aims to give everyone a voice, and we apply these policies equally, regardless of who is posting or their personal beliefs."

  • Palestinian girls return to play in their destroyed homes in the town of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip.

    EPA

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Pro-Palestinian activists are waging a coordinated campaign to undermine Facebook and downgrade its rating, in protest against the company imposing censorship on Palestinian websites, and everything they published during the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza.

This campaign, which is being participated in through social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook, calls for giving Facebook a one-star rating in the Apple and Google application stores.

It seems that the strategy has achieved the required success. During the past week, the site’s rating decreased from 4 out of 5 to 2.3 out of 5 in the Apple App Store, and 2.4 out of 5 in the Google Store on Saturday evening, after Receive thousands of 1-star ratings.

Many of the assessments include comments that talk about Facebook silencing the voices of Palestinians, and hashtags that used to say "Freedom for Palestine" or "Gaza is under attack."

'Dangerous 1'

This campaign was dealt with very seriously within Facebook, and it was classified as "Dangerous 1", which is a description used internally in the company when there is a big issue that poses a threat to the site, according to the screenshots of internal messages that have been reviewed by "NBC." News »news. And "risk 1" is the second highest risk facing the site after the "Sevo" risk, which is used when the Facebook site collapses. An internal message to the site sent by a senior software engineer at Facebook said: "Users' confidence has decreased dramatically as a result of the recent escalations between Israel and the Palestinians," adding, "Our users feel angry at the way we dealt with the situation." Users feel they are being censored, their messages restricted, and ultimately their voices are silenced. As a result, our users started protesting by leaving one star ratings. ”

According to leaked footage of an internal discussion, "Facebook" contacted the store's applications to ask if it was possible to remove the negative evaluation, but "Apple" refused to do so, according to what was published by a Facebook employee, who said that she contacted the development relations team at "Apple" about This issue.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have been accused for several years of restricting the voices of Palestinians by deleting the sites and accounts that support them.

During the conflict that erupted this month between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinians and their supporters around the world said that this problem had exacerbated unreasonably.

Access Now, a non-profit organization that advocates for digital rights, documented many examples on Twitter and Instagram by restricting and not publishing hashtags that refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the place that was the center of clashes between the Israeli police and Palestinian worshipers at the beginning of this month. And Twitter has restricted the account of the writer Maryam Barghouti, who is American of Palestinian origin.

"Our policy aims to give everyone a voice, and we apply these policies equally regardless of the identity of the person publishing or their personal beliefs," Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement, adding, "We have dedicated an entire team of Hebrew speakers. And Arabiya is monitoring the situation on the ground, and they were focusing on ensuring that we delete harmful content, and at the same time, we address any errors as quickly as possible.

Google and Apple did not respond to our requests for comment on the situation.

• Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have been accused for several years of restricting the voices of Palestinians by deleting the sites and the accounts that support them.

Olivia Salone is an American journalist

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