KUALA LUMPUR: The removal of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim posts relating to the war in Gaza by social media platforms shows that they are complicit in silencing grave human rights abuses befalling the Palestinian people.
Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations (Macsa) chairman Lukman Sheriff Alias said it was time for Malaysians to stand up against such arbitrary censorship and say no to any complicity in silencing the genocide in Palestine.
"The removal of the prime minister's posting relating to Palestine by Instagram follows a long line of history of arbitrary censorship by social media platforms.
"We have received numerous complaints over the past few years of postings and accounts being deleted by social media platforms for merely promoting basic human rights of the Palestinians without a tinge of any call to violence.
"The continuation of these censorship will only allow the genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and injustices suffered by Palestinians for decades to continue unabated in silence," he said in a statement.
It was earlier reported that Anwar had slammed Meta after posts conveying his condolences to Hamas official Dr Basem Naim over Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killing were removed on Meta-owned platforms Facebook and Instagram.
On Instagram, the content was removed as it had "dangerous individuals and organisations".
Meanwhile, a notification from Facebook said the prime minister's post was removed as it had elements that praised or supported people or organisations that had been defined as dangerous.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister's Office called on Meta to explain why a post from May, showing Anwar's meeting with the Hamas leader, was taken down.
Lukman said it was time a Palestinian Anti-Censorship Act was established to make social media platforms accountable for their actions.
He said the act should be modeled on German law with two prong objectives - to make social media platforms accountable for any censorship as well as to define what constitutes a legitimate Palestinian cause that cannot be censored.
"If any social media platform continues to censor, it must state publicly why a posting is removed.
"The second prong is to define what constitutes a legitimate Palestinian cause that cannot be censored. Social media platforms are now arbitrarily setting their own censorship parameters.
"It is outrageous that they categorise condemnation and criticism of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid befalling the Palestinian people and calls for self determination as hatred," he said.
Lukman added that the current censorship is wrong and that the boundaries of censorship must be defined.