Meta removed on Tuesday photos of IDF soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip. The social media claimed it was done by mistake, and promised to restore them soon.
The IDF published the original photos to assist the hostages' families in sharing the content and raising awareness of the issue.
Meta claims the deleted posts "shared or sent symbols, praise or support of people and organizations that we define as dangerous, or follow them." The original post on Tuesday was made at the request of the captive female soldiers' families. The content is believed to have been deleted after Meta mistook the female soldier's photo for Hamas content.
The post in question and the removal notice were first published by Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynet journalist Raz Shechnik in a post on X. "Instagram removed the post about the kidnapped reconnaissance soldiers on the pretext of 'danger'. This is not the first time that the Meta group has taken action in response to false complaints from pro-Palestinians. At least here in X, it doesn't happen," Shechnik wrote.
After clarifying the issue, Meta said it would immediately restore the removed photos. The company did not explain why its content filtering system identified the photos as prohibited content. The company emphasized that it only prohibits content originating from Hamas or encouraging the organization.
Meta has been trying in recent months to reduce the promotion of political content on its platforms. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would no longer automatically remove content with the word "Shahid", the Arabic term for "martyr."
In May, Meta removed two Israeli and Iranian campaigns. Israeli influencers reported that the visibility of their posts has been restricted. However, the company later announced that it had decided to change its approach to anti-Zionist content and define it as antisemitic.
"Unlike our policy regarding the removal of hostages' content produced by Hamas, the decision regarding the removal of the captive soldiers' photo was not in violation of any policy since it was not produced and published by Hamas but was found by the IDF and distributed by the hostages' families to raise awareness. Therefore, the photo will be restored to the accounts from which they were removed," Maya Sarig, Meta Israel's deputy director of communications said in response to a Ynet inquiry.