Dramatic increase in digital rights violations of Palestinians in May 2021: Written statement submitted ahead of HRC 47

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and 7amleh - The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement submit this statement ahead of the Human Rights Council 47th session to express their grave concern about the dramatic increase in digital rights violations against Palestinians during the 2021 Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in mixed cities in Israel and forcible displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

In May 2021, 7amleh documented over 500 cases of censorship of Palestinian political speech online, in the form of content takedown, account suspension and limiting features of the services, coupled with over 40 examples of hate speech and incitement against Palestinians. This pattern of censoring Palestinian and Arabic political speech is exacerbating the human rights violations already occurring on the ground.

The human and digital rights of Palestinians face serious threats as a result of social media companies’ discriminatory policies and algorithms, which flag Palestinian content and political speech arbitrarily and indiscriminately, ultimately significantly and dangerously limiting the Palestinians’ ability to enjoy as well as document violations of human rights. Furthermore, the direct and unmonitored relationship between some social media companies and the Israeli government is enabling the government to violate essential human rights of Palestinians and human rights advocates. This is further exacerbated by a pattern that most social media platforms perpetuate, in which Palestinian and Arabic content is over-moderated, while anti-Palestinian incitement and hate speech in Hebrew is treated with less scrutiny.

Read the full statement here.

以下は、JCA-NETが加盟しているAPC(進歩的コミュニケーション協会)が国連人権委員会に提出したレポートの日本語訳です。Translation of the statement to Japanese here.