YouTube, Zoom and Facebook censor Leila Khaled for Israel
Nora Barrows-Friedman Lobby Watch 23 September 2020 | The Electronic Intifada
►https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/youtube-zoom-and-facebook-censor-leila-khaled-israel
Major Silicon Valley companies censored an event at San Francisco State University on Wednesday.
This means that during the pandemic, private companies closely aligned with the government have immense power over what can be said, even in an academic setting.
Zoom, the web-based videoconferencing platform, announced Tuesday evening that it was prohibiting SFSU from using its software to host a planned webinar on Wednesday with Leila Khaled, the Palestinian resistance icon who is now in her seventies and lives in Jordan.
Zoom has threatened to cancel this webinar and silence Palestinian narratives. We expect SFSU/CSU to uphold our freedom of speech and academic freedom by providing an alternative venue to this open classroom. We will see you tomorrow at 12:30 pm (PST) at the Zoom webinar.
— AMED Studies (@AmedStudies) September 23, 2020
This is what happens when we subcontract our universities to Zoom: they decide which events are acceptable and which aren’t. It’s outrageous. ▻https://t.co/Bcg4WwfKQ7
— سريّ المقدسي (@sareemakdisi) September 23, 2020
The event was also restricted by Facebook, which has a lengthy history of censoring Palestinians on behalf of Israel.
On Wednesday, the event went ahead via YouTube, but shortly after it began, the company cut off the video stream, replacing it with a notice that said “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
