Were you 'shadow-banned' on Instagram for sharing pro-Palestinian stories? It was a bug, says Meta

SINGAPORE: Some users on Instagram have reported significantly lower reach on their posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict, in what Meta said was a "bug" on Monday (Oct 16).

Affected users took to other social media platforms to share screenshots showing lower engagement numbers on their posts about the escalating war. 

"After posting an Instagram story about the war in Gaza yesterday, my account was shadowbanned. Many colleagues and journalists friends have reported the same," said investigative reporter Azmat Khan on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

"It’s an extraordinary threat to the flow of information and credible journalism about an unprecedented war."

A "shadow-ban" is when a social media or online user is blocked or has their reach reduced without their knowledge. This typically results in others not being able to view their posts or comments. 

In a statement shared on X by Meta's communications director Andy Stone, the company said that the issue was due to a bug that "affected accounts equally around the globe".

"We identified a bug impacting all Stories that re-shared Reels and Feed posts, meaning they weren’t showing up properly in people’s Stories tray, leading to significantly reduced reach," said Meta.

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

This is not the first time Meta has come under fire for how its platforms handle pro-Palestinian content.

In 2021, Instagram cited technical errors for deleting posts regarding a possible eviction of Palestinians from an East Jerusalem neighbourhood.