Israel's government asked Meta to scrub social media content about its war with Iran, and in several cases Meta agreed, according to internal documents viewed by The Intercept. The requests covered posts mourning the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, content supportive of Iran's retaliatory missile launches, and even raw footage of Iranian missiles hitting Israeli residential areas. None of this content violated Israeli law, the documents show - Israel simply argued it broke Meta's own rules.
Why Meta’s Dangerous Organizations Policy Creates a Double Standard
Meta designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a "Dangerous Organization" and bans positive speech about its actions. That gave Israel a lever: flag any pro-IRGC content and claim it violates Meta's policies. No such prohibition exists for favorable posts about the U.S. or Israeli militaries. Legal scholars quoted by The Intercept say Meta's use of sanctions law to justify this has little precedent - material support law focuses on funding, not political speech.
A Dedicated Liaison Gives Israel Privileged Access
Meta employee Jordana Cutler, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, serves as a direct line between the Israeli government and Meta's content moderation teams. The Intercept previously reported Cutler advocated for removal of unwanted speech. Few other countries get a dedicated Meta representative - India's policy head resigned in 2020 after lobbying for Hindu nationalist party interests. Meta declined to say whether Cutler facilitated this newest round of takedown requests.
War Exposes the Fragility of Platform Governance
Stanford Law professor Evelyn Douek told The Intercept: "Governments wanting to suppress speech that is critical of their war efforts is as old as time. Allowing governments to claim national security reasons to suppress speech willy-nilly would obliterate the value of speech protection." Meta's own 2022 audit found it over-enforces moderation on Arabic content compared to Hebrew content, disproportionately silencing Palestinian voices. The company's Oversight Board also documented systemic over-enforcement of the Dangerous Organizations list, which is stacked with Muslim and Middle Eastern entities.
Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts defended the practice: "Anyone is able to report content they think violates our rules. Regardless of who or how a piece of content is flagged, we assess it based on our policies." But when you give one side a private hotline and a policy book slanted toward their enemies, the assessment isn't neutral - it's asymmetrical censorship by design.
Source: Israel Asked Facebook to Censor Iran War Content, Internal Documents Show
Domain: theintercept.com
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