“Platformicide is not simply about removing content. It is about denying a population access to the infrastructures through which they can claim their existence online.”

‘Platformicide’ of Palestine: Activists struggle to be heard on Meta

A report by Palestinian NGO 7amleh and Utrecht University analyses 3,520 cases of digital rights violations against Palestinians.

By Heba Habib

Published On 12 Aug 202612 Aug 2026

Jerusalem-based journalist Faten Elwan has more than 300,000 followers on her Instagram account, a page which regularly covers events in Palestine and documents the Israeli occupation, but now her posts typically get just a few hundred views.

In April 2026, Elwan was on a hike when she discovered her account had been unexpectedly reactivated after a two-month suspension, something she believes was due to her pro-Palestine content.

Her first story back on the platform was of her walk along the sea and reached 30,000 views. Within an hour, the number for later stories had dropped to a few hundred.

She is one of many pro-Palestinian account holders who believe they have been “shadow-banned” by Meta, a technique allegedly used by social media companies to restrict the visibility of certain accounts, consequently limiting the number of people who can see their content.

“People tell me: if we don’t specifically search for you and type your name, ‘Faten Elwan’, together, we can’t find you. I no longer exist,” she told Al Jazeera.

Elwan’s account was suspended for the first time in late 2023, shortly after the start of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, and her account has been taken down eight times during the war. In May 2025, Elwan managed to meet representatives of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, to flag her silencing on their platforms, but she said their response to her complaint appeared dismissive and noncommitted.

“During my meeting with Meta, they heard my statement, and there was no reaction whatsoever. I gave my statement and provided examples of what happened to me, how I’m technically just a shadow on social media,” she said.

“We all used to have a school principal. The principal would punish the bad student and shut him up. Meta is simply playing that same role, but on a global scale.”

Shadow banning

Elwan’s case is one of many documented in a report investigating how Meta has allegedly suppressed Palestinian voices over the past five years, including during successive Israeli assaults on Gaza.... READ MORE  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/12/platformicide-of-palestine-activists-struggle-to-be-heard-on-meta

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

".... diplomacy, multilateralism and global standards are a better choice than a race for the bomb."

The Guardian view on a US-Saudi nuclear agreement: an offer that further erodes international safeguards

Editorial

Opinion 

US foreign policy

 

Even if no reactors are built, Donald Trump’s announcement of a double-standards deal with Riyadh has wrought further damage in a new era of proliferation

 

Sun 26 Jul 2026 12.29 EDT 

Even as he threatened to escalate an unlawful war sold in part as preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Donald Trump opened the door to proliferation in the region on Wednesday. The US announced that it had signed a deal with Saudi Arabia which would potentially allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in future and to avoid the fullest inspection rights for the international watchdog.

Experts have long warned that a civilian nuclear programme could create a path towards a nuclear-armed Riyadh. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and de facto leader, has said that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, “we will have to get one”. Concerns are magnified by the agreement’s terms. Washington previously argued that the “gold standard” was the United Arab Emirates’ agreement to permanently forgo enrichment and accept full monitoring by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Weakening it sets a precedent that Russia or China could also cite in nuclear deals in future.

The turmoil that Mr Trump has created in the Middle East is encouraging governments both to hedge their bets and to tool up. The US paused attacks on Iran at the weekend, after 13 successive days of strikes, amid reports that it is concerned about declining interceptor stockpiles, but no exit is in sight. As António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said on Thursday, the region “is teetering on the edge of [the] unimaginable … One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next.” ... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/26/the-guardian-view-on-a-us-saudi-nuclear-agreement-an-offer-that-further-erodes-international-safeguards

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

"We may speak thousands of languages, but we all call this planet home. No matter where we come from, protecting our Earth is a shared responsibility. We need more ambitious #ClimateAction — for our planet and the generations to come."

United Nations

@UN

 

We may speak thousands of languages, but we all call this planet home. No matter where we come from, protecting our Earth is a shared responsibility. We need more ambitious #ClimateAction — for our planet and the generations to come. — via @UNDP  

 https://x.com/UN/status/2040399735526195506

UN Development- Working to end poverty, inequality & climate change & advance the #GlobalGoals.  

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO see art or read good articles or quotes  IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

CNN: A group of US officials who publicly resigned over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy are banding together to support ongoing dissent and put pressure on the government to change course.

Former Biden officials explain why they are working to get him to change US' policy in Gaza

By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN

8 minute read

Updated 11:37 AM EDT, Sun June 9, 2024

CNN  —  More than half a dozen people from across the US government have left their jobs in public protest, saying they could no longer work for the administration, and even more have quietly departed. Many of the officials who resigned publicly said they would instead seek to have an impact outside the government.

President Joe Biden has faced pressure both abroad and at home over his support for Israel eight months into the war in Gaza with Hamas – a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of civilian lives, displaced millions and brought extreme hunger throughout the enclave. Although the rhetoric from the administration has become harsher – with warnings that Israel must do more to protect civilians and allow more aid in – the policies have remained largely unchanged.

The former officials who resigned publicly – Josh Paul, Harrison Mann, Tariq Habash, Annelle Sheline, Hala Rharrit, Lily Greenberg Call, Alex Smith, and Stacy Gilbert – said that they felt their perspectives, expertise and concerns were not being heeded, and that the administration was willingly ignoring the humanitarian toll caused by Israel’s military campaign. They spoke of the damage they felt US policy on the war is having on the country’s credibility and a sense that the administration did not fully grasp that impact.

All the officials who have resigned publicly and spoke with CNN said they have many colleagues who are still within the government but agree with their decision to leave.

Providing support and advice to those colleagues – whether they choose to leave or continue to dissent from within – is one of the key reasons that they have come together collectively. Another key reason, they said, is to increase the pressure on the administration to change course.  READ MORE...  https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/08/politics/us-officials-gaza-policy-resignations/index.html

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said on Tuesday that the United States must stand up for Palestinian human rights and hold Israel accountable

"For decades, we have been subjected to a system of direct control and captivity; Israel is violating our human rights and freedoms and annexing Palestinian land and resources, while completing the siege and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem," Ashrawi said.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=684785
Ashrawi: US must hold Israel 'accountable'

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said on Tuesday that the United States must stand up for Palestinian human rights and hold Israel accountable, stressing that there was "no hope for peace" if it failed do so.

The comments came during a meeting with US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, Catherine Russell, at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah on Tuesday.

During the meeting, both parties discussed the role of women in the "peace process," the importance of the women's movement in Palestine, the ongoing negotiations, and Israel's creation of "facts on the ground."

"For decades, we have been subjected to a system of direct control and captivity; Israel is violating our human rights and freedoms and annexing Palestinian land and resources, while completing the siege and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem," Ashrawi said.

"The US is not exercising the political will needed to curb Israeli violations of international and humanitarian law. Unless there is an American commitment to treat Palestinians equally and to hold Israel accountable, there is no hope for peace," she added.

Ashrawi also noted the accomplishments of women in Palestine in the face of tremendous odds:

"Despite the gender discrimination in Palestine and obstacles imposed by Israel's military occupation, among other barriers, Palestinian women persist in their struggle for equality, dignity, and social justice."

Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110220/ts_alt_afp/scienceuspopulationfoodUndated image of Earth's city lights released by NASA. A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday. (AFP/NASA/GSFC/NOAA)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable" if current trends continue, Clay said.

The swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion, said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.

But incomes are also expected to rise over the next 40 years -- tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations -- and add more strain to global food supplies.

People tend to move up the food chain as their incomes rise, consuming more meat than they might have when they made less money, the experts said.

It takes around seven pounds (3.4 kilograms) of grain to produce a pound of meat, and around three to four pounds of grain to produce a pound of cheese or eggs, experts told AFP.

"More people, more money, more consumption, but the same planet," Clay told AFP, urging scientists and governments to start making changes now to how food is produced.

Population experts, meanwhile, called for more funding for family planning programs to help control the growth in the number of humans, especially in developing nations.

"For 20 years, there's been very little investment in family planning, but there's a return of interest now, partly because of the environmental factors like global warming and food prices," said Bongaarts.

"We want to minimize population growth, and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning," said Casterline.