Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A number of social media have questioned their position in facing the current conflict between Israel and Palestine. Including Meta which has been proven not to be neutral.

The situation on social media has indeed heated up since the war started on October 7 2023. Users even attacked each other and even called for a boycott of every supporter.

Meanwhile, the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have shown several signals that they are not neutral in the conflict. Here is some proof:

1. Instagram Calls Palestinians Terrorists

A report stated that several accounts that used the word Palestine were interpreted as terrorist. One of them was experienced by an Instagram user named @khanman1996.

In his bio he wrote that he was Palestinian with the Palestinian flag and the words Alhamdulillah in Arabic. However, when translated, an English translation appeared which read: “Thank God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom.”

Meta has also opened its voice regarding this matter. “We sincerely apologize for this happening,” Meta was quoted as saying BBC.

2. Palestine Post Removed

Posts related to Palestine are said to have been deliberately removed. Reports from a number of Instagram users stated that pro-Palestinian content was shadow banned by the platform.

Posts in Stories are said to have fewer views than others. Their accounts are also difficult to find in the search feature.

Meanwhile, Meta explained that there was a bug that affected Stories. The company assured that this problem is not related to the content uploaded by users.

3. Mark Zuckerberg Calls Hamas Evil

The Meta boss opened his voice about the situation in his Instagram Stories upload. Zuckerberg said the Hamas attack was very evil.

“The terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas are very evil. There is no justification whatsoever for carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent people,” he wrote, quoted from NDTV.

He also said his focus was on the safety of his employees and families in Israel and the region. The official Israeli account on X expressed its thanks for Zuckerberg’s post.

4. Photo of Palestinian Children Holding Weapons

The Guardian noted that there are differences in the depiction of Palestinian and Israeli children in the feature on WhatsApp, Create AI Sticker. When searching for the words Palestinian, Palestine, or Muslim boy Palestinian, what comes up is a boy with a gun.

These results are different if you search for Israeli Boy, which displays cartoon characters playing football or reading. Meanwhile a search query with the keyword ‘Israel Army’ produces soldiers smiling and praying without weapons.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]