Meta to limit some Facebook comments on Israeli, and Palestinian posts

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has implemented temporary measures to reduce the number of "potentially unwelcome or unwanted comments" on posts related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In an updated blog post by Meta, the company addressed the matter saying that the default setting for people who can comment on new and public Facebook posts created in the region will now be limited to only their friends and followers.

According to Meta, users can opt out and change the setting at any time, but the social media giant declined to specify how the company defined the region.

The social media company added it will disable the ability to see the first one or two comments on posts while scrolling the Facebook feed.

Additionally, Meta says a bug seemed to have caused Instagram posts in support of Palestine to be hidden.

The company said that it fixed an Instagram bug after some Instagram users, who posted pro-Palestine content, accused the social media platform of suppressing their content.

Meta designates Hamas as a “dangerous organisation” and bans content praising the group.

Mondoweiss, a news website that covers Palestinian human rights, said on social media platform X on October 10 that Instagram had twice suspended the profile of its video correspondent, Geo News reported. 

Other Instagram users reported their posts and stories about Palestine were not receiving views.

“This bug affected accounts equally around the globe – not only people trying to post about what’s happening in Israel and Gaza – and it had nothing to do with the subject matter of the content,” Meta said.