Meta claims ‘error’ caused removal of Malaysia PM’s posts on Hamas leader

Meta Platform has apologized for removing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts about the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling it an “operational error.”

US tech giant Meta Platforms issued an apology on Tuesday for deleting Anwar's posts on Facebook and Instagram that offered condolences for Palestinian resistance group Hamas leader’s assassination, following a request for clarification from Malaysia.

"We apologize for an operational error where content from the Prime Minister’s Facebook and Instagram Pages were removed, and the content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label," a Meta spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response to questions.

Last Thursday, the prime minister accused Meta of cowardice and acting as “instruments” of Israel after Facebook and Instagram took down a video recording of his phone call with a Hamas official to offer condolences over Haniyeh's assassination. He had also posted a picture with Haniyeh along with a condolence message.

Meta had cited the posts’ association with “dangerous individuals and organizations” as the reason for their removal, a decision that aligns with the classification of Hamas as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.

The apology came a day after Anwar’s office summoned Meta representatives, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to the prime minister's office to clarify the reasons behind the removal of certain posts.

"The Prime Minister's Office views Meta's actions as discriminatory, unjust, and a blatant suppression of free expression," the office said in a statement on Monday, asserting that it undermines the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice and human rights.

Haniyeh, who was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, was assassinated along with his bodyguard, in an attack on his residence in northern Tehran early on Wednesday.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Haniyeh's assassination was designed and executed by Israel, with support from the US administration.

In a similar incident in May, both social media platforms took down images of Anwar alongside Haniyeh and other figures from Hamas' political bureau, which the prime minister had met during a working trip to Qatar, saying they were taken down in error.

Facebook blocks post by Malaysia PM on assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh

The Malaysian PM is outraged after Facebook removed his post on Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh.

The social media giant has also locked horns with Turkey due to its policy on praising Hamas, which led to the recent blocking of Instagram by the country. This action followed the Turkish communications minister's criticism of the platform for removing condolence messages related to Haniyeh.

Turkey blocks Instagram amid outrage over censorship of posts on Haniyeh

Turkey blocks access to Instagram, amid outrage over the censorship of posts on Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Back in February, Meta removed the accounts belonging to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on the social media platform, due to the support for the oppressed people of Palestine.

Meta has been indulging in systematically taking down pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas content across Instagram and Facebook since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Recent actions by the CEOs of major American social media companies reveal a stark contradiction between their professed commitment to free speech and human rights and their actual practices, which restrict the dissemination of factual information.

The targeted censorship of Palestinian voices seeks to obscure the true, first-hand accounts of the harrowing realities of Israeli actions in Gaza, particularly as Western mainstream media increasingly avoids reporting on the situation in Palestine.

The company has censored hundreds of instances of such content amid growing calls by Palestinians' supporters for cessation of the military onslaught that has so far claimed the lives of nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children.

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