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Israel-Gaza war: Meta sorry for ‘error’ over removal of Malaysia PM Anwar’s posts on Hamas
- The prime minister has been a leading voice opposing Israel’s war on Gaza and has slammed social media platforms for alleged censorship of content
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Meta on Tuesday apologised for what it called an “operational error” that took down Hamas-related posts on the Facebook and Instagram pages of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as Malaysians roundly condemned the Silicon Valley giant for allegedly filtering out the plight of Palestinians.
Anwar has been a leading Asian voice in opposing Israel’s war on Gaza, having hailed Hamas as “freedom fighters” and calling out the West for enabling Israel’s continued assault on the Palestinian enclave that has killed nearly 40,000 people, mostly civilians.
Last Thursday, the prime minister accused Meta of cowardice and acting as “instruments” of Israel after Facebook and Instagram took down a video of him extending his condolences to Hamas over the killing of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
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Earlier, both social media sites had removed pictures of Anwar with Haniyeh and other leaders from Hamas’ political wing, who the prime minister had met while on a working visit to Qatar in May.
Representatives from Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, were on Monday summoned for a meeting at the prime minister’s office to explain why the posts were taken down.
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On Tuesday they issued an apology.
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