https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/meta-suspends-palestinian-poet-account-hours-after-winning-pulitzer-prize
Social media erupts in anger after Meta suspends Palestinian Pulitzer Prize winner's account
Abu Toha was awarded the prestigious prize for shedding light on the "physical and emotional carnage in Gaza" through his essays "that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel."
Abu Toha had announced the award in a post on X, dedicating it to family members killed by Israel, as well as other Palestinian victims of its 19-month war and siege of the enclave.
"I'm honored to receive the Pulitzer Prize today. Great thanks to the prize's jury and board members for honoring me," he wrote.
"I dedicate this success to my family, friends, teachers, and students in Gaza. Blessings to the 31 members of my family who were killed in one air strike in 2023."
However, celebrations of Abu Toha's award were short-lived, as only 12 hours after his announcement, Meta suspended his Facebook account.
"Meta is upset after I won the Pulitzer Prize yesterday. It has suspended my Facebook account for the second time in a week," he wrote on X.
Social media users expressed outrage at the decision, with investigative journalist Meghnad Bose calling it "the latest high-profile instance of Meta's disproportionate censorship of content related to Palestine."
One user accused Meta of "censorship" and seeking to "silence the truth", whilst another wrote: "Welcome to America where you win awards for truth, then get silenced for telling it."
Later, a Meta representative responded to Abu Toha's post, claiming the suspension "was an error" and that the account "has been restored and is visible".
Monday's episode isn't the first time Meta has come under fire for censoring content related to Palestinians since Israel declared war on Gaza.
In December 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Meta of "silencing voices in support of Palestine" and failing "to meet its human rights due diligence responsibilities."
Between October and November 2023, HRW documented over 1,050 takedowns and reported "suppression of content [on] Instagram and Facebook that had been posted by Palestinians and their supporters, including about human rights abuses."
In 2021, a Meta-commissioned report found that the company's flawed content moderation policies had stopped Palestinians from sharing "information and insights about their experiences as they occurred", which had a negative "human rights impact".
Abu Toha has spent the majority of his life in Gaza and was in the besieged territory when Hamas and allied Palestinian fighters launched an assault on southern Israel in October 2023.
The attack and subsequent Israeli response, which left more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and soldiers dead, was a precursor to the ongoing Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 52,000 people.
Abu Toha fled the area with his family in November 2023 but not before being abducted by Israeli forces, taken to a prison in the Negev desert, where he was beaten and interrogated, and then taken to hospital for his injuries.
He was eventually released to Egypt with his family after pressure on the Israelis from friends in US media and cultural circles.