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Comment by mjfl | Hacker News Reader

mixed feelings about this. Tiktok was highly addictive and destructive to the brains of young teenagers, but at the same time it was one of the few media platforms that allowed criticism of Israel to go viral. Instagram is similarly addictive and destructive. There are charts showing the rise of depression in female teens that coincides directly with the rise of Instagram. But Instagram also actively censors criticism of Israel. The government wants to redirect young people towards these enclosed pastures to better herd them.

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I’m not picking a side here on the conflict.

Do you actually believe the criticism of Israel was just random and “viral”? I find it hard to believe sitting on that platform is anything ‘random’.

I never said anything about it being random. I think many people share the opinion of the content authors, and thus 'like and share' the content, causing it to go viral. You should understand that normal people are deeply sympathetic to the Gazan civilians because they see the images coming out of Gaza, images of children whose limbs have been blown off by 2000 lb bombs dropped on apartment buildings, and are horrified by the violence being done to the innocent.

> I think many people share the opinion of the content authors, and thus 'like and share' the content, causing it to go viral.

I give this a 0% chance of being real and 100% chance of being an illusion they want you to believe

You wouldn’t do well in Vegas.

> allowed criticism of Israel to go viral

Typically the things that get deplatformed are not well-reasoned criticism so much as emotional outbursts full of barely coherent rhetoric anyway... (this comment should not be interpreted as taking a position on the issue).

No. It's not criticism but more about able to broadcast directly what is going on in gaza. Western media were not showing that at the beginning or they were only showing what Israel allowed them to.

Politicians were not happy that tiktok had those raw footage. It's not criticism but trying to hide reality.

With Israel coverage, companies have had leaked moderation guidelines to remove practically anything critical of Israel.

Even if that were true - is that a valid excuse for censorship? Certainly not. Freedom of speech means freedom of speech. Period. It doesn't mean freedom of speech that you personally agree with or that passes some arbitrary bar of rhetorical quality.

At the same time it was one of the few media platforms that allowed criticism of Israel to go viral.

Actually, it has been the 76 years of increasingly brutal occupation with no end in sight, along with all the compltely ludicrous propaganda the State of Israel (and its right-wing support base abroad) continually transmits about itself this state of affairs, with the weird expectation that the world should actually believe it for some reason -- which has allowed criticism of Israel to go viral.

> But Instagram also actively censors criticism of Israel

I have friends working for nonprofits in this space, and I can assure you the 25 stories a day they blast out are not being censored

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