Haifa – Ramallah, October 12, 2023, As of Yesterday, 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media has detected more than 19,000 cases of hate speech and inciting content in Hebrew language on X (formerly known as Twitter). There has been a significant increase in this type of content since October 7th, the first day of the recent escalations, and the number of posts continues to rise. The cases documented included various forms of harmful content, with 50% categorized as hate speech, 30% categorized as fake news or promoting violence and incitement. Furthermore, 48% of these tweets were politically motivated, while 32% of the posts contained racial bias, and the remaining content also included gender and religious discrimination.
Additionally, 357 violations have been reported through 7or – the Palestinian Observatory for Digital Rights Violations, from Oct. 7th through Oct. 11th. These violations included 128 cases of account restrictions on Palestinian activists and supporters, and 229 cases of hate speech and incitement, which primarily targeted residents of Gaza, calling for the burning and destruction of the region and the killing of civilians. 7amleh continues to work diligently on reporting all violations to social media companies and has successfully resolved many cases already.
Furthermore, 7amleh has been monitoring widespread internet shutdowns throughout the vast majority of Gaza since last Saturday due to Israel’s targeting of telecommunications and electricity infrastructure. For example, through airstrikes, Israel leveled ِAl Watan Tower, the building that housed the main internet providing companies in Gaza, and the headquarters of Palestine Telecommunications Company in Gaza, while also cutting power to the grid. This deliberate targeting of internet and electricity companies constitutes a serious violation of Palestinians’ digital rights, in addition to infringing upon freedom of expression, the right to access information, and the right to communicate. It’s worth mentioning that internet infrastructure plays a crucial role in connecting individuals during crises and providing necessary information and support to them.
The Israeli government is taking advantage of the current international sentiment to continue exerting pressure on social media companies to censor the Palestinian narrative and silence voices critical of Israeli policies. Palestinian content and those advocating for Palestinian rights are continuously subjected to deletion and restrictions, all while false and misleading news spreads rampantly across online platforms, as is common during times of crisis.
Nadim Nashif, General Director of 7amleh, urges X to take effective and serious measures to remove hate speech and inciting content from its platform. He states, “These tweets, classified as hate speech and incitement, can potentially translate into real-world attacks on Palestinians, as previously seen with incitement on the same platform, leading to organized attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian communities both in the West Bank and Israel, There is concern that similar attacks may occur again.”
7amleh would like to emphasize the importance of reporting all cases of hate speech, incitement to violence and fake news in the digital space, to 7or. This can be done through 7amleh’s website at 7or.7amleh.org.