Facebook bans Arutz Sheva

Arutz Sheva-Israel National News's English-language Facebook page was suspended last week following a series of reports against the page's posts.

The reports may have stemmed from anti-Israel and antisemitic reporting campaigns against Israeli and Jewish pages.

According to Facebook's policies, all users can report content that appears to them as offensive or inappropriate. The system is meant to prevent the publishing of hate speech, immoral content, or mis and disinformation.

While covering the current war, the page, which has 151,999 followers, received several complaints against various reports on the war's events including the elimination of senior Hezbollah official Nabil Qaouk on September 28th, an official IDF announcement about the commencement of the operation in Lebanon, the elimination of the terrorist who murdered a father in front of his children on October 7th, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's response to US President Joe Biden regarding a potential hostage deal, an IDF announcement about the dismantling of Hamas forces in Rafah, an IDF statement against Hezbollah, an announcement about the elimination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, and even a post from October 8th reporting the atrocities committed by the Hamas terror organization a day earlier.

The complaints were received together with a message from Facebook reading: "It looks like you shared or sent something that attacks a person, or group of people, based on who they are."

After Arutz Sheva's appeal regarding the removals, Facebook replied that it had decided not to reinstate the posts.

While the Facebook page is still accessible, Arutz Sheva is unable to upload posts. At the same time, the site's pages on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram are active and continue to provide up-to-date reports on news from Israel and around the world.