from MintPress News:
On Jan. 11, Israel’s new minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, named Facebook senior employee, Jordana Cutler, as the ministry’s director general. The ministry is notorious for combatting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and promoting a positive image of Israel abroad. Yet with Cutler’s biography and Facebook’s history of censoring Palestinian content, experts and activists are sounding the alarm over the appointment.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Cutler worked as Facebook’s public policy director for Israel and the Jewish diaspora since 2016. During her time there, the social media giant was consistently accused of restricting Palestinian content on its site — a problem that persists today.
Palestinian digital rights organization SadaSocial said in a statement to MintPress News:
We believe that Jordana Cutler’s appointment as director general of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs underscores the mutual relationship between the two parties, Israel’s official level and social media platforms, which translates on the ground into the suppression of Palestinian content.”
A senior #Facebook employee will be #Israel‘s Director General of the Strategic Affairs Ministry in Netanyahu’s gov.
Prior to joining Facebook, Jordana Cutler used to be an advisor to Netanyahu, a Likud campaign strategist & advisor to Israel’s Embassy in the US!#RevolvingDoor pic.twitter.com/jNHzZWsikJ
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) January 12, 2023
Cutler’s new government role is not the first time she has been involved in politics, however. She worked for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 2005-2007 and then again in 2013- 2016 as its Chief of Staff. From 2009 to 2013, she was an advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, during Benjamin Netanyahu’s time as head of state. Before that, she also worked on the political campaigns of Likud – Netanyahu’s political party.
“OUR WOMAN AT FACEBOOK”
In 2020, Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, called Cutler “Our woman at Facebook” and subsequently named her one of the 50 most influential Jews of 2022. “My job is to represent Facebook to Israel, and represent Israel to Facebook,” Cutler told the outlet.
Throughout her time at Facebook, the social media behemoth consistently topped the list of tech companies violating Palestinian digital rights, according to data from SadaSocial and 7amleh – The Arab Center For the Advancement of Social Media. In 2021, 7amleh recorded 585 violations occurring on Facebook. In 2020, SadaSocial reported 801 violations on the social media platform. And in 2018, SadaSocial documented 370 violations on Facebook, that number jumped to 779 in 2019.
“This makes us very worried that one of the people working for the government of occupation is in direct contact with one of the biggest social media platforms, which could lead to more censorship, repression, and digital aggression,” SadaSocial said, adding that Cutler’s appointment may increase the arrests of Palestinians for their social media posts.
A September 2022 report by the independent consulting firm, Business for Social Responsibility found that Meta (the company which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) violated Palestinian users’ rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination during Israel’s May 2021 assault on Gaza. Specifically, the findings conclude Meta over-enforced rules on Arabic content and under-enforced Hebrew content. The report confirmed long-standing accusations that Meta silenced Palestinian voices online during the events of May 2021.
As Israel rained missiles on Gaza and violently arrested Palestinians in the flashpoint Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, activists reported that social media companies, particularly Instagram and Facebook, removed their content under the pretext it violated community guidelines.
