Meta said it is aware of Hamas’s threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and that it will immediately remove any such material and prevent copies from being shared again.
It is also reducing the threshold at which its technology takes action to avoid recommending content that potentially violates rules on its Facebook, Instagram and Threads platforms.
While Hamas is banned from the platforms, Meta allows social and political discourse – such as news reporting, human rights-related issues, or academic, neutral and critical discussion.
The European Commission has put pressure on social media platforms to remove illegal and harmful content to comply with its Digital Services Act (DSA), violations of which can lead to huge fines.
Meta’s response differs from that of X, formerly known as Twitter, which has asked the Commission to provide more information on violations on its site. The commission has started investigating X.