Noureddine Milani, professor of communications at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, says the Human Rights Watch report documenting Meta’s censorship of Palestinian-related content on social media is alarming.

“This is the culmination of systematic pressure from around the world, especially policymakers on social media platforms … it’s another way of caving into the pressure from the Israeli government,” Milani told Al Jazeera.

HRW reviewed 1,050 cases of online censorship from more than 60 countries, most of them featuring peaceful pro-Palestinian posts.

Such “unprecedented” control over content, Milani said, will also badly affect the company’s image, as well as that of other social media platforms.