BEIRUT - Instagram and Twitter have blamed technical errors for deleting posts mentioning the possible eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, but data rights groups fear"discriminatory"algorithms are at work and want greater transparency.
By Monday, 7amleh, a non-profit focused on social media, had received more than 200 complaints about deleted posts and suspended accounts related to Sheikh Jarrah. Instagram said in a statement that an automated update last week caused content re-shared by multiple users to appear as missing, affecting posts on Sheikh Jarrah, Colombia, and U.S.and Canadian indigenous communities.
"The issue was not resolved. We're demanding clarity on this censorship, and system glitches are no longer accepted as an excuse," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday. Some of her posts had been restored by Friday afternoon but some, dating as far back as April and even as recently as Saturday, were still missing according to screenshots from her phone that she shared with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.Shtaya said 7amleh was still fielding complaints about disappeared content.Data rights groups said the technical glitch had revealed the risks of using an automated algorithm to try to weed out violent or otherwise inappropriate posts.
They talking shit