Instagram briefly bans Jewish, Israeli orgs, including JNS

Instagram on Wednesday briefly took down a number of Jewish and Israeli accounts, including that of JNS, over alleged rules violations, prompting accusations of censorship.

Other banned organizations included End Jew Hatred, a grassroots movement fighting antisemitism, and the Dutch chapter of Israel education NGO StandWithUs.

After JNS contacted Meta, the parent company of Instagram, the three accounts were promptly restored, with a spokesperson saying the company was looking into the matter.

JNS’s account was suspended for 180 days on Wednesday without prior notice, with a warning reading, “We don’t allow people on Instagram to deceive people to take their money, property or legal rights.”

StandWithUs charged in a statement that “on Wednesday morning, Nov. 29, the Instagram account of StandWithUs Netherlands was disabled and labeled as misleading information.”

Brooke Goldstein, the founder of End Jew Hatred, accused Meta of “pure anti Jewish discrimination,” adding that “Meta has an obligation to protect its users’ access equally.”

“This is not a repeated violation of terms, we did not post anything fraudulent, or against community standard, THIS IS PURE CENSORSHIP and it’s emboldening those who seek to murder Jewish people all over the world,” tweeted Goldstein.

In a blog post published on Oct. 13, Meta said it had “introduced a series of measures to address the spike in harmful and potentially harmful content spreading on our platforms” in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southwestern Israel.

“We apply these policies equally around the world and there is no truth to the suggestion that we are deliberately suppressing voice,” the post claimed.