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Several hundred people attended a digital media conference last week in Ramallah, Palestine. The goal of the forum was to bring social media users together with the representatives of social media companies.

The event, held at the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Ramallah, included panelists from human rights organizations as well as those from Facebook and Google. The goal of this conference was to bring Palestinian social media users together with the people who design the apps that they use. What happened was a tense standoff between the attendees and the representatives of the social media companies.

Once representatives from Google and Facebook took the stage they were not treated to a warm welcome. These two companies are seen as being complicit in Israel’s ongoing censorship of Palestinian social media. The following Q&A grew contentious when participants demanded to know why Facebook was cooperating with the Israeli government to take pro-Palestinian sites down. Another attendee said they were not pleased with the rehearsed answers and talking points they received from the social media representatives.

Aibhinn Keheller, a Facebook project policy manager who was on the event panel, did not deny that Israel was working with the social media giant, but she said it cooperates similarly with governments throughout the world. “We will only give governments user data in law enforcement cases,” Keheller said, which is how precisely how Israel obtains Facebook user information and works with Facebook to remove posts deemed “incitement.”

According to Facebook, the company has restricted access to nearly 500 posts at the request of Israel.

The Human Rights Watch has said that over 400 Palestinians have been arrested for posts critical of Israel. One recent high profile arrest was that of young Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. Israel has charged Tatour with “incitement,” and “expressing support for a terrorist organization,” via her Facebook updates. Dareen Tatour has been under house arrest by Israel for over a year, yet the poet explains that being locked away in a room with four walls only encourages her to write more poetry.

The organization which organized this event has not announced when the next such forum will be held.

*(Human rights defender and computer networking pioneer Anriette Esterhuysen speaks at 7amleh’s Palestine Digital Activism Forum, Ramallah, West Bank, January 18, 2018. Courtesy of 7amleh)