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Pro-Palestinian activists claim that Facebook is censoring their posts — and are sinking the social network’s app store ratings by leaving one-star reviews en masse.
The campaign, first reported by NBC News, comes amid an ongoing ceasefire agreement that Israel and Hamas brokered on Friday.
As of Monday morning, Facebook had a 2.4 out of 5-star rating on the Google Play store, down from 4.1 a month ago, according to an archived version of the site. On Apple’s app store, Facebook’s rating has fallen to 2.3 stars from 2.7 stars over the same period of time. The reviews sections on both app stores contain comments condemning the company for allegedly discriminating against pro-Palestinian posts and accounts.
“Facebook shouldn’t try to lower our voices,” said Pakistani Twitter user Hamad Rajput, who has helped lead the online campaign, in a message to the Post. “We are raising and chanting the voices to raise awareness for good cause.”
Facebook is taking the activists seriously, categorizing their campaign as a severe threat, according to NBC.
“User trust is dropping considerably with the recent escalations between Israel and Palestine,” said a senior software engineer in an internal message obtained by the outlet. “Users are feeling that they are being censored, getting limited distribution, and unlimitedly silenced. As a result, our users have started protesting by leaving 1 star reviews.”
Facebook, Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Despite Friday’s ceasefire, it appears that the Pro-Palestinian campaigners do not plan to stand down in their campaign against Facebook.
“Facebook does not support legal social support to religious minorities,” wrote an Apple App Store reviewer on the same day the ceasefire was announced. “Facebook is helping the Israeli government as a demand from the Israel prime minister to take down any content related to the genoside {sic} in Gaza.”
The Palestinian activists’ complaints echo those of many American conservatives, who also claim that Facebook has a political agenda that leads the company to unfairly censor accounts and posts.
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