The Web Summit is held for the first time in the Middle East and Africa (Al Jazeera)
Doha
-
A clear bias revealed by the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October, for some social media platforms in supporting, promoting and beautifying the Israeli narrative and granting it prominence ratings and immediate appearance on platforms in various continents of the world.
In fact, the same platforms deliberately ignore the scenes of destruction, hunger, and bitter cold that destroy the bodies of the children of the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli aggression, siege, and displacement faced by more than two million people.
Whoever does not exist on social media platforms does not exist...a statement adopted by those who hold the theory “the world is governed by technology,” and it seems that it has become, according to experts, a rule and a basic pillar on which the Israeli media war machine relies to gain the world’s sympathy for its claims and justify its crimes and torture. The owners of the rights and the land.
Al Jazeera Net met during the Web Summit in Qatar with a number of experts and specialists to talk about the reasons for social media platforms fighting Arabic content that supports the Palestinian cause.
Direct threat
While speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Qatari journalist Hassan Al-Saei did not hide his annoyance at the threats he and a number of his media colleagues in Qatar and the Gulf received because of their support for the Palestinian cause and their broadcast of publications supporting the people of Gaza and showing the crimes of the Israeli occupation and its massacres against them.
Al-Sa’i, an activist on social media platforms in Qatar and the Gulf, says that we receive daily threats of closure or restriction from some platforms under the pretext of publishing content that violates the policy of these platforms. Violating content, Al-Sa’i says, is what shows the extent of the injustice that befalls the residents of Gaza and the daily and systematic killings. committed by the Israeli occupation army.
Al-Saei stressed that this content was not in violation of events that occurred in Europe and different regions of the world, but because it is Arab Muslim content that supports a noble cause such as the Palestinian cause, it is therefore in violation and inhumane.
Arabic platform
Al-Saei continues his speech by saying that the most appropriate solution to confront the measures of blocking and controlling our opinions as Arabs and Muslims is to launch a purely Arab platform, with Arab management, Arab content, capital, headquarters, and pure Arab supervision. Through this platform, we can convey our voice as Arab influencers to the world, show the facts, and express the suffering of our people in Gaza. Absolutely and professionally.
In turn, Lisa McCoy, responsible for marketing management and the security system at Google Cloud (Google Cloud), did not deny her awareness and knowledge of the double standards policy of some social media platforms, and their handling of many events with specific agendas and ideologies that are shaped by several features, the most important of which are:
Trends of platform owners.
Policies of the country in which the platform is based.
Money granted by partners and investors.
Profits coming from ads and advertisers.
McCoy indicated in her interview with Al Jazeera Net that all of these factors have a major role in determining the required and permitted content for any large global platform, and whoever violates them may be subjected to measures whose level of severity varies from one platform to another, stressing that these measures are transformed in times of wars, disasters and conflicts into tools that are used. During which we neutralize some and highlight others.
“Facebook is losing the trust of Arab users.”
BuzzFeed news website publishes a report highlighting criticism from #Facebook employees regarding the platform’s bias against the Palestinian people pic.twitter.com/jviuYQRDHL
- Monitoring Network (@RassdNewsN) May 28, 2021
The head of the marketing department and security system at Google Cloud did not respond to Al Jazeera Net's question: Why do most social media platforms fight content that supports Palestine and Gaza in particular?
But it showed - in some way - its dissatisfaction with some platforms’ fight against content supporting Gaza.
She said: I feel very sad about what is happening to the children of Palestine, and I hope that this war will stop quickly, and that the development of the technological world will become inseparable from its humanity and respect for man.
Regarding the possibility of the success of the idea of creating a new Arabic platform, McCoy expressed her support for the idea and its potential for verification and success due to the large number of Arabic speakers, the geographical proximity between the residents of the Arab region, in addition to the availability of capital and minds and the large number of young users.
She expressed her optimism about the great development she saw in Qatar in digital transformation and the correct way in which Qataris use technology to improve their quality of life.
Boycott the platforms
For his part, Ahmed Karim, Head of Communications Operations at the Government Communications Office organizing the Web Summit in Qatar, called on social media activists in the Arab and Islamic world to boycott platforms that are not neutral towards what is happening in Gaza, stressing that the boycott will produce important and unexpected results.
Karim said in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that a single boycott campaign and the closure of the platforms of Meta Company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, for only 24 hours will be enough for the company to change its policy in dealing with the massacres committed by the Israeli war machine in the Gaza Strip, provided that the boycotters announce that the boycott came in objection to The company's policy is against the Palestinian issue and the events taking place in Gaza.
He stressed that Meta deleted hundreds of thousands of posts in support of the Palestinian cause, and also closed or suspended the Instagram accounts of many supporters of the Palestinian cause. This is an unjust and unjust measure that can only be confronted with a popular boycott, according to Karim.
Regarding the alternative if a “popular boycott” of specific platforms is implemented, the head of communications operations at the Government Communications Office believes that creating an Arab platform is the best alternative at the present time, as it is now important for Arab investors to agree to launch an Arab social media network on the Internet that has Modern and advanced specifications that are no less than their international counterparts.
The Arabic novel in the West
As for Leonardo Natuzzi, a business development consultant at the Italian company (Diseo), which specializes in creating applications and software solutions, he says that Italian society is almost disconnected from what is happening in Gaza due to social media practices in blocking and restricting content on this issue, presenting his idea of creating a global, neutral platform that does not Subject to any agendas.
In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Natuzzi pointed out the difficulty of achieving this goal due to the challenges that he may face if it is launched, since those who control the world of technology in the world do not accept to hear voices opposing their broad lines based on the fact that the intelligence of the white race exceeds the intelligence of people of other skin types, and that the poor are fuel. This world is for the rich and their descendants to enjoy the riches of the earth.
Source: Al Jazeera