Chicago, IL – On June 11, 100 activists gathered in front of the Facebook offices in Chicago to demand an end to digital apartheid. The social media company has repeatedly found reasons to censor Palestinian people who use the social media platform. Most recently, Facebook banned the use of hashtags denoting locations in Palestine, or advancing demands of the Palestinian people. Facebook insultingly claims that they are the names of terrorist organizations or forms of hate speech.

As a result of this abuse of power, the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) called for the rally to demand Facebook stop silencing Palestinians. Prominent voices on the ground in Palestine have been banned or otherwise censored as a result of the social media company’s policies.

There is regularly a lack of mainstream media coverage on the human rights atrocities committed against the Palestinians by Zionist colonizers. Facebook and other social media platforms are often the only means of communication Palestinians have to document the abuses they endure under occupation.

In addition to banning the names of Palestinian towns and mosques, Facebook has made it company policy to consider “Zionist” and “Jewish” synonymous terms, a decision made to wrongly paint all Palestinians as anti-Semitic.

In addition, the CJP calls for an end to the abuse of journalists in occupied Palestine. The CJP is also demanding an end to unconditional U.S. aid to the apartheid state of Israel. Importantly, the CJP supports Palestinians’ right to return to their land and be afforded the right to self-defense.

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