Saul Williams’ Pro-Palestinian Instagram Account ‘Suspended’ By Meta, Poet Says

Saul Williams attends the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2023 in Park City, Utah. | Source: Mat Hayward / Getty

A prominent poet, actor and musician who has been outspoken against the Israeli-led “genocide” of the Palestinian people in Gaza and violence in the Middle East is being blocked from accessing his Instagram account.

Anyone trying to visit Saul Williams’ Instagram page is being met with the following messages: “Sorry, this page isn’t available,” and “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Go back to Instagram.”

Williams announced on Sunday afternoon that he has been “suspended” by Meta, Instagram’s parent company.

FYI – @Meta suspended my @instagram

— Saul Williams (@SaulWilliams) September 29, 2024

While Williams didn’t offer any additional information, some of the responses to his post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing his suspension included calls for his immediate reinstatement. One response suggested that Meta is “very much against Palestine.”

Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein posted on Threads that ” Meta suspended the @instagram of Black musician Saul Williams, who has been a major advocate for Palestinian liberation.” Prescod-Weinstein noted that “This kind of censorship is dangerous.”

Notably, Threads is another social media platform that is owned and operated by Meta.

An email sent by NewsOne to Meta requesting comment was not immediately returned.

Williams’ Instagram posts are obviously no longer publicly accessible, but a quick glance at his posts on X shows many of them centered on the violence in Gaza.

The post pinned to the time of Williams’ X timeline declares “We are witnessing a genocide” and pointedly asks President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House: “WTF are you doing about this?”

We are witnessing a genocide.
WTF are you doing about this? @POTUS @VP @WhiteHouse

— Saul Williams (@SaulWilliams) October 29, 2023

That post is from Oct. 23, 2023, just weeks after the Hamas militant group attacked a music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, prompting the Israeli military to mount a campaign of violence that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians comprised of women and children.

Since then, Williams has continued to use his X account – and presumably his Instagram account – to raise awareness of that “genocide” of the Palestinian people.

Williams used his X account this weekend, in particular, to amplify posts drawing attention to the Israel-led bombing in Lebanon that experts suggest is a precursor to a ground invasion of the neighboring country to target Hamas and Hezbollah, a militant and political group in Beirut.

If Meta did suspend Williams’ Instagram account for the pro-Palestinian nature of its contents, it wouldn’t be the first time such action has been taken against its users for that alleged offense.

The Guardian reported on Oct. 26, 2023, that “Pro-Palestinian Instagram accounts have been locked by Meta.”

Middle East Eye reported in February that Meta told people who had been suspended from Instagram that “the accounts had been removed because they violated the platform’s community guidelines,” such as its “Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy” and “Community Guidelines.”

While Meta never specifically pointed to pro-Palestinian rhetoric as being the reason for the accounts being suspended, the people behind the banned accounts certainly did.

That includes activist Shaun King, who said late last year that “Instagram has banned me for fighting for Palestine, and speaking up for the human rights and dignity of Palestinians.”

SEE ALSO:

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Stands In Solidarity With Palestine, So Should You

Personal Stories From An Afro-Palestinian Amid Israel-Gaza Conflict

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