I've been suspended by Instagram

Apparently for violating “Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organisations". Well, that is bullshit.

Early this afternoon, I discovered that my Instagram profile had been suspended. That means not only can I not access it, my profile - instagram.com/owenjonesjourno - is no longer visible.

This is an account that I use primarily for journalism, of course - and right now that means focusing on Israel’s Western-facilitated genocide of the Palestinian people.

According to Instagram, this because I have violated their “Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organisations.”

Having submitted an appeal, Instagram informed me that if they look into it and conclude I’ve violated these Community Standards, then my account will be permanently erased.

As you’ll note, there’s no transparency here, but you can read the Community Standards on “dangerous individuals and organizations” on Meta’s website, and clearly the idea I’ve violated them is preposterous.

Clearly I don’t organise or advocate for “violence towards civilians” or engage in beavjour that is “repeatedly dehumanising or advocating for harm against people based on protected characteristics, or engaging in systematic criminal operations”.

Nor do I “glorify, support or represent events” that Mdeta designates as “violating violent events”:

including terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders or hate crimes. Nor do we allow (1) Glorification, Support or Representation of the perpetrator(s) of such attacks; (2) perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or (3) third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims. We also remove content that Glorifies, Supports or Represents ideologies that promote hate, such as nazism and white supremacy. We remove unclear references to these designated events or ideologies.

Neither do I violate anything else in these Standards, such that is

“Violent Non-State Actors that engage in violence against state or military actors in an armed conflict but do not intentionally target civilians.”

As anyone who follows my work on Palestine knows, I don’t advocate for violence and consistently oppose all war crimes, not least the targeting of civilians.

What we do know - based on work by the likes of NGO Human Rights Watch - is that Meta have engaged in “systemic” censorship of Palestine-related content on Instagram or Facebook. So this could mean pro-Israel trolls reporting me based on lies and this being accepted by Meta.

There are many other cases of pro-Palestine accounts being shut down, not least recently. We know that Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, has embraced Donald Trump - after the President threatened to send him to prison if he engaged in political activity Trump disapproved of - and appointed a pro-Trump supporter as his head of policy.

There is another possible explanation: we recently published a clip of me on the Jeremy Vine Show opposing the imprisonment of a neo-Nazi who was sentenced for a homophobic attack on me in 2019, based on the fact that I don’t think prison is a solution for such political problems. Clearly if that’s why -- that I am being accused of somehow glorifying the neo-Nazi who physically assaulted me - then Kafka-esque doesn’t even cover it. Anyway, I’ll keep you updated!

What I would say is we are at the mercy of tech giants in an age of growing authoritarianism. As it happens, Substack is one of the few places that’s likely not to suddenly silence progressive voices, so please do consider subscribing here!