Internal data obtained by DropSite News reveals a campaign to delete posts critical of Israel or supportive of the Palestinians on Facebook and Instagram, coordinated directly with Israel.
The data showed that Meta responded to 94% of deletion requests issued by Israel since October 7, 2023, making Israel the world's largest source of such requests. Meta also expanded the scope of posts automatically removed in what has been described as the largest mass censorship operation in modern history.
According to documents leaked by internal whistleblowers, this data details the internal workings of Meta's Integrity Organization, the body responsible for ensuring safety and credibility on the company's platforms.
Documents indicate that 95% of Israeli requests fall under Meta's "terrorism" and "violence and incitement" categories. These requests mostly targeted users from Arab and Muslim countries, in a broad effort to silence criticism of Israel.
The data also showed that Meta removed more than 90,000 posts in compliance with Israeli requests, with each request taking an average of 30 seconds. Beginning in late 2023, the company significantly expanded its automatic deletion processes, resulting in "action" on an estimated 38.8 million additional posts across Facebook and Instagram. These actions, in Meta's terms, include removing, blocking, or reducing the visibility of the post.
According to the leaked documents, the Israeli requests primarily targeted users from Arab or Islamic majority countries, led by Egypt at 21.1%, followed by Jordan (16.6%), Palestine (15.6%), Algeria (8.2%), Yemen (7.5%), Tunisia (3.3%), Morocco (2.9%), Saudi Arabia (2.7%), Lebanon (2.6%), Iraq (2.6%), Syria (2%), and Turkey (1.5%).
Overall, users in more than 60 countries reported being censored for posting content related to Palestine, either by having their posts deleted, their accounts suspended, or their visibility reduced through “shadow banning.”
Remarkably, only 1.3% of Israeli deletion requests targeted users inside Israel, making it an exception compared to other governments that focus their censorship on their own citizens.