Facebook-owned Instagram made changes to its algorithm after a group of its employees complained that pro-Palestinian content was not visible to users during the Gaza conflict. Give equal weight to both.
The Instagram staff group made several pleas about content blocked by Instagram's automated moderation, such as posts about the Al-Askah mosque that were mistakenly removed. The Times, but one said that moderation is broadly biased against any marginalized groups.
A Facebook spokesperson is saying that the change is not only in response to concerns about pro-Palestinian content, but the company has recognized the way the app works and it posts it thinks its users care about most - leads people to believe it was suppressing views or specific topics.
The spokesperson said, we want to be really clear, this is not the case. This applies to any post that gets re-shared in Stories, regardless of its topic.
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have come under fire over the past several weeks for how they appear or not to content about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Earlier this month, Twitter restricted the account of a Palestinian writer, which it later said happened by mistake.
It ended up apologizing on Instagram after several accounts were unable to post Palestine-related content for several hours on May 6, a move that Instagram boss Adam Mosseri tweeted was due to a technical error.
Instagram says it has repeatedly heard from users who say they care more about original stories from close friends than they care about seeing people re-share others' photos and posts.
That's why original stories are prioritized, the spokesperson said, "But there has been an increase - not only now but in the past as well - in the number of people reposting, and we've seen a greater than expected impact on the reach of these posts. Stories that retweet feed posts don't get the reach people expect, and that's not a good experience.
The spokesperson added that Instagram still believes users want to see more original stories, so it's looking at how Stories focus on original content through new tools.
The report published on the specialized technical website Engadget indicated that Instagram will display and share more posts, republished, to address the accusations leveled against it regarding the monitoring of content related to Palestine.
A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns the Instagram platform, said that there was no intentional censorship, and the new update came in response to widespread complaints about this matter, with users not being able to access re-shared content related to Palestine materials and other content.
He explained that the matter had a greater impact than expected, noting that the new update to Instagram would solve all problems and achieve a good experience for users.
However, the report stressed that this update will not remove all concerns about censorship of content related to Palestine, because Facebook will mark posts on Instagram that contain words such as martyr or resistance, or incite violence, and will even remove private posts about Al-Aqsa Mosque at the time of the recent clashes.