- ‘The platform turned into a free-for-all where hate speech and incitement targeting Palestinians proliferated at a high rate,’ says Nadim Nashif of 7amleh, a Palestinian digital rights group.
LONDON: An Israeli state advertising campaign has been appearing on many X users’ feeds — despite the microblogging company’s ad policy guidelines banning this.
Clearly marked “Ad” on the top, the state’s official X account — defined by the gray verified tick stating that it is an affiliate of the Israeli Foreign Ministry — displayed a post featuring burned and destroyed houses.
The post —which had attracted 8.5 million views at the time of writing — read: “They went from house to house. Burned people alive. Murdered entire families. Children. Babies. We will not be silent. May the memory of the victims of Kibbutz Beeri be a blessing.”
This directly violates X’s ban on state and affiliated accounts running advertising campaigns on the website.
“State-affiliated media may not purchase advertisements. This policy extends to individuals reporting on behalf of, or who are directly affiliated with such entities,” the company’s policy states.
“State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. Unlike independent media, state-affiliated media frequently use their news coverage as a means to advance a political agenda.
“The promotion of content from state-affiliated media is also prohibited.”
Meanwhile, the European Commission opened an investigation into X after warnings about misinformation linked to Hamas and Israel. This followed the sudden removal of “hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts” and thousands of posts.
The EU gave X 24 hours to address the issue or face penalties under the Digital Services Act.
“Since Elon Musk took over Twitter and turned it into X, the platform turned into a free-for-all where hate speech and incitement targeting Palestinians proliferated at a high rate,” Nadim Nashif, the executive director and co-founder of 7amleh — The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, a Palestinian digital rights group, told Arab News.
“Between Oct. 7-11, we collected 23,000 posts on X in Hebrew using specific lexicons, and classified 19,000 of those X posts to have included hate speech or inciting content targeting the Palestinians. Before that, we published a report on how the volume, nature, and patterns of inflammatory and violent speech in Hebrew directed at the village of Huwara on Twitter contributed to the implementation of a number of attacks by settlers against the village.”
Users of other social media sites have also seen Israeli state-affiliated accounts advertising on their platforms despite bans and restrictions.
YouTube, a Google subsidiary, has had ads created by the Israeli Foreign Ministry showing footage and videos of the attack by Hamas in an effort to drum up sympathy and support online.
One ad, seen and verified by Arab News, had a big block-lettered text against a black screen with a voiceover and overlayed with crying and screaming noises describing the events of Oct. 7.
It ended with the text “This is a war. And Israel will take every measure necessary to protect our citizens against these barbaric terrorists,” followed by the State of Israel emblem.
Another ad, also seen and verified by Arab News, showed censored footage and a crying child consoled by an elderly woman with flashing text reading: “Israel is under attack. We will make sure those who harm us pay a heavy price.”
It ended with the text “Stand with us” followed by the State of Israel emblem.
YouTube’s ad policies clearly state that assets related to elections or politics are prohibited.
They also state that “videos designed to scare you intentionally or that contain footage of distressing accidents or natural disasters (enforcement applies to simulated or real content)” are prohibited.
