Meta deletes popular 1M follower account after Kuwaiti request

tgv

Link via xcancel: https://xcancel.com/ryangrim/status/2055992439031185782#m

mw67

Crazy that these mega corporations still bow to the requests of countries. Would they do the same of any important actor requesting censorship? like if Elon or Bezos make a request, they'd get ignored, even though they're more powerful than Kuwait.

like_any_other

My favorite part is all that Meta will say is "account doesn't follow Community Standards" [1]. Impossible to defend against such a vague accusation, and they get to keep the real reason secret. [1] Really they're Meta's standards - it wasn't "the community" that wrote them.

737min

Context: the popular account is a promoter of Muslim Brotherhood, banned by US and many Mideast countries.

Tyrubias

In a sane world, the US as a supposed bastion of free speech and personal liberties would enact legislation that requires companies to provide a specific, articulable reason for suspending accounts due to rules violations and offer everyone the chance to appeal. That would serve as a counterbalance to more authoritarian regimes insisting companies like Meta censor people, even if the US can’t guarantee it for people not affiliated with the US. Unfortunately, the US seems more intent on censoring its own residents and becoming one of those authoritarian regimes than actually doing anything about it.

ggoo

I cannot open this link.

bdangubic

Fascinating that “Meta did ______” makes the front page weekly it seems. I have long reached a point in life where “Meta did _____” is either interesting or surprising

rock_artist

I see a lot of discourse but without much context. With HN, I'd expect people to have more context than bashing what feels more politics than reviewing a banned or censored (still need more context). All I can find which isn't enough (at least for me), to have an educated conclusion is the following: Tweet re-tweeting Ahmed Shihab-Eldin: "After weeks of trying to regain access to my @instagram account, which was temporarily suspended by @accessnow while I was wrongfully detained, I FINALLY got a backup code which allowed me to login only to receive this prompt that my account has been permanently disabled" Access Now - that I can understand works for human rights. https://www.accessnow.org/about-us/ English Wikipedia: "On March 3, 2026, Shihab-Eldin was detained by Kuwaiti authorities for resharing news articles about the Iran war;[13][17] the previous day, he had posted images of a U.S. fighter jet crashing over the country.[18] The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that he had not been seen publicly in Kuwait, where he was visiting family, since March 2, and that he was under arrest over accusations of "spreading false information," "harming national security" and "misusing his mobile phone;"[13][19] the incident occurred as part of a wider wave of crackdowns targeting journalists across different Gulf states amid the war." Then mentioning his Kuwaiti citizenship was revoked on 29th of April 2026 and earlier some implicit hint? he was released. (though he's American born so I can assume he also has a US Citizenship unless he gave it away at some point) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Shihab-Eldin https://www.ahmedshihabeldin.com/ I see he has been a journalist and activist over the years within context of the Middle East. But if someone have more details about why he was blocked it would be much more helpful to understand this story.

pbiggar

To get a flavor of what Ahmed Eldin speaks about, here is one of the last episodes of his podcast before his arrest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9poJrS_VgI