Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid said on Friday that the Instagram platform has censored her stories related to the Palestinian cause.
"Instagram has largely banned me from posting - only if the photos and videos are related to Palestine," Bella Hadid said in a statement on her account.
And earlier on Friday, Bella Hadid, on her Instagram account, condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by members of the Israeli army to arrest Palestinian youths.
Some of Bella Hadid's pro-Palestine Instagram posts have been blocked (Source: Bella Hadid's Instagram page)
And she said, "What the Israeli soldiers do in Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the middle of prayer, and in the blessed month of Ramadan, only mentally ill people do."
Hadid believes that the US platform owned by Meta has imposed a partial ban on its publications in solidarity with the Palestinians.
She explained in a statement, "When I post about Palestine, I am banned in the "Shadow banned", which is a partial ban on my followers' appearance immediately, and the number of followers of my stories and publications decreases to about one million people."
#Dutch–#Palestinian supermodel Bella Hadid complains about being “shadow banned” by #instagram for posting about #Palestine after “#israel” attacked worshipers at #AlAqsaMosque on Friday.#InstagramCensorsPalestine #Instagram #Censorship #Fascists #FreePalestine 🇵🇸 pic. twitter.com/CxptUnz8Rc
— Aliya Hasan 🇵🇸🇾🇪❤️✌️ (@AliyaHasan_) April 16, 2022
Hadid pointed out that the "Shadow banned" technique means that "your appearance on Instagram has been restricted, and only you and your direct followers can see your posts."
Activists and bloggers supporting the Palestinian cause denounced the Instagram administration's move, questioning the seriousness of the freedom of expression slogans raised by the American platform.
Activists were surprised by the Instagram application's silence on the voices siding with the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem.
Dr. Fatima al-Wahsh, "American model of Palestinian origins #Bella_Hadid," wrote, "What the Israeli soldiers do at Al-Aqsa in Ramadan can only be done by the mentally ill, and it is not allowed to justify the actions of the Israeli army. What is the position of the owners of culture, politics and leadership?!"
American model of Palestinian origin #BellaHadid "What the Israeli soldiers do at Al-Aqsa in Ramadan can only be done by mentally ill people, and it is not allowed to justify the actions of the Israeli army!!!!
What is the position of the owners of culture, politics and leadership?!!
— Dr. Fatima al-Wahsh #Jerusalem, is #awareness (@fatimaalwahsh) April 16, 2022
Some tweets confirmed that "preventing Bella Hadid from talking about Palestine is actually disgusting because we need a new app."
Bella Hadid being banned from speaking on Palestine is actually disgusting we need a new app
— jem💎 (@jsxr_) April 16, 2022
Malik, a tweeter, said, "Instagram has partially blocked Bella Hadid from talking about Palestine, are we surprised?"
bella hadid shadow banned on insta for speaking out about Palestine.. are we surprised
— melek.
🇵🇸 (@kerimahkel) April 16, 2022
In another tweet, Amina said, "The media, especially Instagram and Facebook, continue to block and mute people trying to post videos about what's happening in Palestine, and my friends can't share a story or a clip of today's events."