The online battle. Meta (Facebook) is working to remove content associated with Hamas and its supporters. During the first three days of the conflict, more than 795,000 harmful contents were removed, which is 7 times more harmful content in both Arabic and Hebrew per day.
At Meta, they say that a special situation room has been set up, staffed with experts, including native Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to real-time situations. This step allows for the faster removal of harmful content that violates community standards and serves as an additional defense against misinformation.
Additionally, the Hamas movement, defined by the U.S. government as an international terrorist organization, is also classified as a "dangerous organization" under Meta's community standards. This means that Hamas is banned from various platforms, and any expression of support or direct assistance to Hamas made public is removed. Furthermore, efforts are made by Meta to prevent "recommended content" in Arabic to the Israeli public.
The possibility of live broadcasts will be avoided
In order to prioritize the security of the Israelis who have been abducted by Hamas, the violence policy has been temporarily expanded. Content that specifically identifies abducted individuals is immediately removed upon its appearance. However, even when such content is posted for condemnation purposes or to raise awareness about the situation of the abducted individuals, it is also removed from the platform.
The company acknowledges that the kidnappers used the live broadcast platform in the various apps at the time of the massacre, in response restrictions were imposed on the ability of people who had previously violated the rules of the policy to use live broadcast.
Furthermore, sources at Meta (formerly Facebook) state that they are aware that Hamas is threatening to broadcast images of the captives and are taking these threats very seriously. Special teams closely monitor this issue and will swiftly remove any such content (as well as the accounts behind it) and take measures to prevent any further sharing of such content.