By Maria Hussein | Staff Writer
A quieter war that uses algorithms rather than missiles is taking place on screens, servers, and social media feeds as bombs detonate in Gaza, and buildings collapse in clouds of ash and concrete. Once a global headline, the Palestinian struggle now faces erasure online in addition to occupation and blockade. This is the digital war on Palestine, where truth is being silenced and visibility is resistance.
A journalist captures a rundown hospital in the center of Gaza. Within minutes of being uploaded, the image is marked as “graphic content” even though it only reveals broken beds and shattered glass. Truth bleeds silently in today’s war, suppressed not by military checkpoints but by ambiguous content moderation policies used by tech giants that maintain their neutrality while systematically silencing Palestinian voices.
Social media sites have turned into battlefields for narrative control, particularly during escalations. Stories on Instagram disappear. Popular hashtags like #FreePalestine are disabled on X (formerly known as “Twitter”). Reach is limited by TikTok. Suddenly, even accounts with millions of followers are silent. The message is unmistakable: Western feeds cannot tolerate Palestinian suffering. It throws off carefully planned timelines. Therefore, platforms sanitize reality, clean up the images, and rewrite the narrative, one flagged post at a time, instead of increasing awareness.
This censorship is not random. It is strategic.
Take the case of Fatima Hassouna, a young Palestinian photojournalist who documented the human cost of war through her camera. Her unfiltered and raw photos spoke louder than data. Fatima and ten members of her family, including her pregnant sister, were killed in an Israeli airstrike a few days after her documentary, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was accepted to the Cannes Film Festival. Her name wasn’t popular. Her work was all but destroyed. A voice muffled not only by rubble but also by algorithms that determine what grief is permitted to be heard.
This was more than just a journalist’s death. The truth was deliberately erased. Fatima stated in her last message that even if given the opportunity, she would not leave Gaza. “This is where I belong,” she declared. And her inability to turn away was precisely what made her dangerous.
Even artificial intelligence is being used as a weapon in today’s surveillance environment. Leaked reports claim that Israeli forces have used facial recognition software to track, monitor, and categorize Palestinians, including journalists, as “threats.” Every journalist is at risk, as AI algorithms examine their voices, habits, and online activity. A record is created from digital fingerprints. The camera turns into a target.
Digital censorship has an impact that surpasses national boundaries and is not limited to Palestinians living there. When speaking out about Gaza, activists and influencers in the Arab world, Europe, and the United States say their accounts are suspended or their posts are removed. Pro-Palestine rhetoric is implicitly associated with extremism in many Western nations. Advocacy turns into a liability. The identity of Palestinians turns into an algorithmic red flag.
Nevertheless, the truth escapes despite every attempt to keep it hidden. In Rafah, a father holds his dead daughter. A child inquiring as to whether the world has ended. A video of a girl reciting poetry next to the wreckage of her school was shared millions of times before it was removed. Moderation systems designed to preserve comfort, not justice, swept these fragments away after briefly breaking through the noise.
As the digital war rages on, it may feel like every effort to share the truth is swallowed by the noise. The algorithms mute, block, and erase, leaving behind only fragments of the story. Each voice that rises is swiftly silenced. But in this fight, silence is not victory. Even when your posts disappear, when your reach is limited, and when it seems like your voice is a whisper in a digital storm, do not stop. The system wants you to believe that resistance is futile, that no one is listening, and that your actions have no impact. They are wrong. Every post, every hashtag, every image shared breaks through the digital walls they’ve built. Every act of defiance, no matter how small, is a refusal to be forgotten.
In this war for truth, your persistence is power. And so, even if you are the last voice standing, keep posting, keep sharing, because your voice matters, and every post counts.