Facebook’s Grovelling Apology To Fatah

A few days it was widely reported that Fatah had their Facebook page closed down, due to the “campaign the social media platform is carrying out against accounts that promote violence.”

It was apparently all because of one photo of arch terrorist Yasser Arafat with a rifle.

Munir Jaghoub, a spokesman of Fatah’s Mobilization and Organization commissariat, told The Jerusalem Post that he believes Facebook closed the account because of a historic photo of former PA president Yasser Arafat grasping a rifle, while standing alongside Fatah Vice Chairman Mahmoud al-Aloul.

“Facebook closed the account and then sent us a message of that photo,” Jaghoub said in a phone call, adding that Facebook had sent three warning messages with attachments of other photos over the past several months.

I am not sure why that was the post that broke the camel’s back so to speak – given the plethora of posts glorifying hate and violence – but there you go.

But not for long.

Facebook has reinstated the page, apologizing for the “mistake.”

But the page was reinstated by Tuesday morning, with a Facebook spokesperson confirming that the page was removed in error.

“The page was removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate. We apologize for this mistake. All pages have to abide by our community standards,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement made available to Al Arabiya English.

The page’s administrators responded through a post on Tuesday night saying: “Please note that we, the page administrators of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah have returned to you after Facebook withheld us from our work”.

And sure enough, the page is there, with the Fatah logo prominently on display.

Apparently, the rifles and glorification of violence in the logo are ok with Facebook, as are the other posts doing so, as well as inciting hatred, which still appear there. For example:

https://www.facebook.com/officialfateh1965/photos/a.1591709777754363.1073741828.1591249977800343/1830514040540601/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/officialfateh1965/photos/a.1591709777754363.1073741828.1591249977800343/1832993440292661/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/officialfateh1965/posts/1760328064225866:0

But none of this should be surprising. Facebook is a safe space for terrorists and antisemites, but not so for pro-Israel pages. Heck, I have personally been blocked from Facebook for days because I linked to my blog posts on antisemites and terror supporters.

If I look at the glass half-full, at least Fatah (with Facebook’s help) is making it easier for people like me to prove they really are terrorists who want Israel’s destruction.