Battle for social media space in Israel-Palestine war

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Writes Lovemore Chazingwa
The conflict in the Gaza Strip has escalated to open public artificial intelligence (AI) warfare as there appears to be a newfound battle for control of leading global social media platforms.
The clampdown on perceived dissenting voices on social media platforms is now a cause for grave concern. Those sections and individuals expressing a soft spot for Palestine were deleted from the leading global social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
Heavy artillery, bombings, missile attacks, human killings, and displacements are far from the only mortal combat methods available in this ongoing war which has been described by some as a real genocide. The Israeli-Palestine war is not only awake to massive suffering of civilians on the ground but, has now deployed its crackdown to mass communication platforms that have become a part of the new world control weapon.
Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe Amb. Dr. Tamer Almassri said pro-Palestinian content on the war is being deleted worldwide and the Israelis don’t want the world to know the situation on the ground.
“They don’t want the world to know about their crimes,” emotionally pointed out.
He said thousands of Palestinian accounts on Facebook and Instagram were deleted for voicing their suffering.
“The Israelis have killed … fifteen journalists (purveyors of information), and attacked, simultaneously destroying sixty-five media offices because they don’t want the world to know about their crimes, all in a bid to stifle information dissemination.”
Dr. Almassri urged all sections of society in their various make-up to leverage social media platforms and help send a strong message denouncing the crimes against humanity being committed by Israel and the suffering that the Palestinian people are going through in this catastrophè.
“The destruction of telecommunication lines among other setbacks stands out to isolate the people of Palestine from the rest of the world while enduring the burden of a holocaust.”
Facebook is the world’s leading social media platform reaching about three million monthly active users (MAUs). Instagram has the highest organic engagement rate between users and brands, ten times ahead of Facebook. The two platforms have the potential to reach any space on the globe through social media interaction, the latest Wikipedia statistics show.