Facebook Allows Hamas News Agency to Operate Freely, But What about The Algemeiner?
In an odd inversion, Facebook, the huge social media network is allowing Shehab News Agency operated by Hamas, an antisemtic terrorist organization, to operate freely on its platform. At the same time, it appears to be blocking an article by Bernard-Henri Lévy published by The Algemeiner.
Last Wednesday, October 21, 2015, The Algemeiner published an article by Lévy, a prominent French intellectual. It was titled “Bernard-Henri Lévy: Things We Need to Stop Hearing About the ‘Stabbing Intifada’.
CAMERA staffers and a number of other people have tried to share it via the Facebook button on The Algemeiner‘s site, but have failed. This writer got the following message when he tried to post the article:
Facebook users who post the actual link on their own pages will discover that it appears as a URL, but no preview is provided.
It does not appear to be a mistake. The article has apparently been removed from people’s personal Facebook pages. The Algemeiner reports that the “disappearance of the article from Facebook was first brought to The Algemeiner‘s attention by watchdog group The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) which noted that their constituents had noticed the article’s absence.”
The article continues:
The post was also removed from The Algemeiner‘s own Facebook page where it had amassed some 40,000 views. Other readers of The Algemeiner also noted that it had been removed from their own Facebook pages, and a Facebook search for the article came up empty.
While Facebook is, for one reason or another, denying The Algemeiner the free use of its platform, it is giving free rein to Shehab News Agency, which is run by Hamas. Despite a February 2015 report from YNET that Facebook has taken down the Shehab website, it remains up and has over 4.3 million “likes.” Snapshots will not provide a link to the page, (which includes accusations that Israel has “executed” Palestinians), but will provide the following screenshot of the page itself:
So what is going on? Why is Facebook preventing The Algemeiner (and other users) from posting an article written by Bernard-Henri Lévy on their pages, but is allowing the news agency for a terror organization to post its material?
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