About 200 employees of the social media giant Facebook have signed a letter urging the company’s administration to address concerns that pro-Palestine content on the social media platform are being censored.

The letter, which was first reported on by the London-based Financial Times daily, urges Facebook’s leadership to adopt measures that ensure pro-Palestine content is not censored or removed.

The Facebook employees urged their leadership “to order a third-party audit of enforcement actions around Arab and Muslim content, and to refer a post by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing Palestinian civilians as terrorists to its independent oversight board”, the FT said.

The letter further calls on Facebook executives to set up an internal task force to “investigate and address potential biases” in both its human and automated content moderation systems, the FT reported.

“As highlighted by employees, the press and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine,” the letter reportedly said.

“We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust,” it continued.

During last month’s Israeli aggression on Gaza, Facebook labelled words used by Palestinian users, such as “martyr” and “resistance”, as incitements to violence. It also took down posts about the Al-Aqsa Mosque after mistakenly associating the holy site with a ‘terrorist’ organisation, according to United States media reports.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency