Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh and Facebook’s Vice President for Global Affairs and Communications, Nick Clegg, today discussed Facebook's mechanisms for dealing with the Palestinian content, advocates of Palestinian rights, as well as preventing incitement through the company’s platforms.

The meeting was attended by Ishaq Sidr, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Osama al-Saadawi, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Empowerment, and Mona Shtayyeh, the Head Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (Hamleh).  And from Facebook, Joel Kaplan, Global Public Policy at Facebook, and Ebele Okobi and Azzam Alameddin, Heads of Public Policy.

Dr. Shtayyeh said: "The Palestinian people and their supporters have the right to communicate the Palestinian narrative without being subjected to content removal or restriction, including of terms used to describe the context of the question of Palestine. We reject the flagging of important terms in our national lexicon, including 'martyr' and 'resistance,' as content that violates the community standards."

Moreover, the Prime Minister called on Facebook to take serious measures by censoring inciting content in Hebrew and English, including hate speech and violent posts by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestine and the Palestinian people and their rights. In this context, the Prime Minister called on the Company to respect international law and United Nations resolutions that recognize the rights of the people of Palestine.

And concerning the recent report issued by the Human Rights Watch that described Israel as an Apartheid State in its practices against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Prime Minister said: "It is imperative to protect the Palestinian content that documents the occupying power's violations of human rights." 

For his part, Clegg confirmed that the company is working hard to ensure its platforms protect freedom of expression for everyone, and the constant development of the company’s general policies to achieve that, expressing his readiness for partnership to achieve the joint goals.