Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernard Sanders criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday for his secrecy surrounding the technology company’s content moderation and censorship of Palestinian-related content on Instagram and Facebook.
In a follow-up to a December letter sent by Ms. Warren, the two lawmakers inquired about the policies the company uses to determine what information gets censored.
The December letter specifically asked about the suppression of Palestinian-related content following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October. The missive cited a statement co-signed by over 90 human rights and civil rights organizations that showed media reports detailing Meta’s censorship of the Palestinian content.
Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, also asked for a list of every instance in the past five years in which Meta changed the content-moderation threshold for a specific region and the number of posts that were removed because of the change.
“(Meta) did not provide any of the requested information necessary to understand (its) treatment of Arabic language or Palestine-related content versus other forms of content,” Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent, said in Tuesday’s statement. “It is imperative that Meta provide this information so the American people and their elected representatives can understand the impact of Meta’s policies on those communities and public debate.”
In response to the initial letter, Meta admitted it “removed or marked as disturbing” over 2.2 million pieces of content in Hebrew and Arabic in nine days after the Oct. 7 attack after changing its content moderation policy threshold. Meta starts hiding comments that violate its policy when its content moderation system is 80% sure that a violation has occurred. After the October slaughter, the threshold was lowered for those in Palestinian territories to 25%, meaning more comments were hidden.
Meta has denied any discrimination against any Palestinian content.
Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders wrote Tuesday, “These concerns are not new. For years, civil society organizations have called on Meta to address systems and practices that result in disproportionate censorship of Palestinians. It is deeply troubling that Meta refuses to acknowledge and address the discriminatory nature of its content removal practices despite being presented with a plethora of evidence to this effect.”
The lawmakers mentioned that a report completed by Human Rights Watch in December revealed that Meta suppressed or removed over 1,000 expressions of peaceful support of Palestinians on Instagram and Facebook in the two previous months.
The letter once again calls on Mr. Zuckerberg to provide the information requested, including how many Arabic language posts and English posts that originated from the Palestinian area were removed and how many Hebrew and English language posts that originated in Israel were removed.
It also requested data on how many content removal appeals were submitted from the different regions and how they were handled.
The duo said Meta’s response to the initial letter “reveals the company’s unwillingness to explain how and why these decisions appear to be having a discriminatory impact.”
They slammed Meta’s process of appealing a removed post, calling it “difficult or even inaccessible.”
“Content removal has serious implications and is difficult for users to reverse,” the lawmakers wrote, adding, “Social media users deserve to know when and why their accounts and posts are restricted and to receive protection against discrimination and hate speech.”
The Washington Times reached out to Meta for comment.