Shaun King Barred From Instagram For Pro-Hamas Posts, Report Slams META For Removing Content

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King was banned by Instagram after King persisted in posting pro-Hamas content and complaining about Israel’s bombings in the Gaza strip. King, who has a 6 million following on Instagram, remained unrepentant, continuing to regularly repost anti-Israel tweets on his X account.

Several other anti-Israel social media influencers have been threatened with sanctions due to their stances. The rapper known as The Game wrote that he was also under threat:

“A million things | could say about this but we all know what it really is on these social apps. @shaunking’s page has been suspended & I’ve been given just as many warnings on my page/posts as well so one can only assume he’s next in line,” The Game wrote in an Instagram post. “And while we over in our country are having happy holidays… We know there are a lot of people who are not. I truly pray for this world’s healing above all else. WE NEED IT.”

Christine Wawira Njagi, the actress and model, said that she had been targeted by Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, Threads and also WhatsApp.

She said, “Yup! Meta warned me too that they will delete my account if I continue to share about Palestine. We are being heavily censored. That’s crazy.”

Last Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Meta of repeatedly removing or restricting content supporting Palestine or Palestinian human rights even when it did not violate the social media giant’s rules.

The report by HRW raises concerns about examples of “peaceful” pro-Palestine content that it said the company removed although the content did not violate any policies. The group also calls on Meta to change or share more information around several policies and moderation decisions, including government takedown requests and when it makes “newsworthiness” exceptions to leave up content that violates its policies.

“Meta should permit protected expression, including about human rights abuses and political movements, on its platforms,” Human Rights Watch said in the report, and urged Meta to consistently enforce its policies for all users.

The group said it identified more than 1,000 of pieces of pro-Palestine content that it claims did not violate Meta’s rules but that were restricted or removed during October and November 2023.

That included posts with images of injured or dead bodies in Gaza hospitals and comments saying, “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide.” In another instance, the group said a user tried to post a comment that consisted of nothing more than a series of Palestinian flag emojis and was met with a warning from Instagram that her comment “may be hurtful to others.”

Human Rights Watch also criticized Meta’s removal of some comments and posts with the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a phrase that some see as a call for a Palestinian state and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, but others view as antisemitic, anti-Israel and potentially violent.

The report also took issue with Meta’s inclusion of Hamas in the its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, based on the US government designation of the group as a terrorist organization, saying that the company should instead rely on “international human rights standards.”

“The US list includes political movements that have armed wings, such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” the report states, adding that Meta should publish the full list of organizations covered by its dangerous organizations policy. “The ways in which Meta enforces this policy effectively bans many posts that endorse major Palestinian political movements and quells the discussion around Israel and Palestine.”