NewStats: 3,261,639 , 8,174,593 topics. Date: Thursday, 29 May 2025 at 09:16 PM 1p3216

Instagram sorry for adding 'terrorist' to some Palestinian bios

By Liv McMahon & Joe Tidy
Technology team



Meta has apologised for adding "terrorist" to the biographies of some Instagram s describing themselves as Palestinian.

Meta said it fixed a problem "that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations" in some of its products.

"We sincerely apologise that this happened," it told the BBC.

The platform has also faced accusations of suppressing content voicing for Palestinians during the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Some s say they have been "shadow banned" on Instagram over pro-Palestinian posts. This is when a platform intervenes to make sure posts do not appear in other people's feeds.

The s claim 24-hour posts on Stories referencing the conflict have had fewer views than others and that their s cannot be found as easily in search.

The tech giant acknowledged a bug had affected Stories but said it had nothing to do with subject matter.

Biography confusion

This followed posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok by Instagram @khanman1996 on Sunday which drew attention to the translation error and documented it happening in a screen recording.

He had written in his bio that he was Palestinian, followed by a Palestinian flag and the word "alhamdulillah" in Arabic - which translates to "praise be to God" in English.

However, upon clicking "see translation", viewers were given an English translation reading: "Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom".

@khanman1996 said in his posts he was not Palestinian himself but had tested the error out after being told about it by an unnamed Palestinian friend.

He said in a video posted after Instagram fixed the issue that the glitch had been up for at least three hours, adding that "to me personally, the fact that it was up at all was insane".

Shadow-banning claims

Shadow banning is when online services limit the reach or visibility of an or its content to other s, usually if it falls foul of their guidelines.

Instagram released a transparency tool in late 2022 that lets s see whether any restrictions have been placed on their that might prevent their posts from being recommended to other s.

Bella Hadid claimed to have been shadow banned on Instagram after posting about the Israel-Gaza conflict last year.

More recently, Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto said in an Instagram post she had been shadow banned for pro-Palestinian posts, with followers telling her they could not see or find her Stories on their feeds.

In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Meta's communications director Andy Stone said the platform had identified a bug "significantly" reducing the reach of Stories which had re-posted Reels or content from fellow s.

"This bug affected s equally around the globe and had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content - and we fixed it as quickly as possible," he said.

Not the first time

Previous accusations of Meta suppressing pro-Palestinian content are well documented.

In May 2021, the charity Human Rights Watch accused Instagram of removing videos, pictures and commentary about the crisis.

The social media firm said in response that posts were removed for containing "hate speech or symbols" and changed its algorithm, but it led Meta to commission an independent review into its moderation of the 2021 Israel-Palestinian conflict content.

The human rights due diligence report by consultancy firm Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) was published in September 2022.

It concluded: "Meta's actions appear to have had an adverse human rights impact on the rights of Palestinian s to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination, and therefore on the ability of Palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred."

BSR said it did not identify any intentional racial or political bias at Meta but recommended that the company should offer more detailed explanations to s who have their posts or s removed and improve language skills of staff in Hebrew and Arabic dialects.

On Thursday, Meta and TikTok were sent formal requests by the European Commission for more information about their measures to limit the spread of disinformation and illegal content in the wake of Hamas' attacks.

Additional reporting by Imran Rahman-Jones

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67169228?

Why should instagram apologize?


Are palestines not terrorists?



They should add the tag to Shettima IG page

Taylor94:
They should add the tag to Shettima IG page

They for don add obby and his boys too alongside the terrorists.
Obby the owner of IPOB and UGM....
Agulu fraudster

Hehe truth hurts

Anybody ing Hamas for going into Israel to kill innocent and unarmed women and children is a terrorist.

Instagram owes no one any apology.

They're on the right track.

Why the apology

It may be a bug issue or not ,but i don't think Instagram should apologize over anything though, most Palestinians are truly terrorist and i hate terrorist,they can all deactivate their Instagram s and mobilize themselves and create a social media platform where all terrorist can come together and air their terror views..

They plan and plan but Allah is the best planner!

Halfhearted Apology.

Western democracy in the mud...

God punish them all.

Another classic example of how media brainwash people.
Even Nairaland here decides what to post. Zero mention of the Church that was attacked yesterday.

You know we are doomed when someone say here that they their source of knowledge of the conflict is Tiktok.

Allah Akwa booooooooom!!!

Know this and know peace.

Every Serious Muslim is a Potential Terrorist
Every Moderate Muslim is a Terrorist er

Wahala

markannan:
Such an unforgivable offence

Go beat them

But they are

all this much ado about nothing

Or dey b wan add tourist

Lol. It's all politics of land grabbing.
The battle has now gone to social media.

Is only a violent or a terrorist religion that will reward terrorist, suicide bombers with paradise or 72virgins

Apology accepted ...make una come first, me and my Palestine goons wan show una something ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex__6LcJr8E

Anuofia!

Awọn olori burúkú aṣiwere asínwín!

Dan iska!

Why the apology?
West don too dey mumu and it may be their downfall

naptu2:


https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67169228?

I for like talk better on this matter, but as per say na truth, if I no offend u Politically, I will. Religiously or racially. So I talk to u any other day I can tell lies.