Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during Israel’s war on Gaza that began in October last year, according to BBC research.

In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, the BBC found that newsrooms in the Palestinian territories - in Gaza and the West Bank - had suffered a steep drop in audience engagement since the start of the war. 

The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram - another Meta-owned platform - increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023.

Meta - the owner of Facebook - says that any implication that it deliberately suppressed particular voices is "unequivocally false".

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, just a few outside reporters have been allowed to enter the Palestinian coastal territory from the outside, and they were only able to do so escorted by the Israeli army.

Social media has filled the gap for those wanting to hear more voices from inside Gaza. Facebook pages for news outlets such as Palestine TV, Wafa news agency and Palestinian Al-Watan News - which operate out of the West Bank territory - became a vital source of updates for many around the world.

BBC News Arabic compiled engagement data on the Facebook pages of 20 prominent Palestinian-based news organizations in the year leading up to the Gaza conflict in October 2023, and in the year since.

Engagement is a key measure of how much impact a social media account is having and how many people are seeing its content. It includes such factors as the number of comments, reactions and shares.

During a period of war, audience engagement might be expected to rise. However, the data showed a 77% decline after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 that was followed by Israel’s war on the enclave. 

Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook. Journalists at the newsroom shared statistics with the BBC showing a 60% drop in the number of people seeing their posts.

"Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people," says Tariq Ziad, a journalist at the channel.

Over the past year, Palestinian journalists have raised fears that their online content is being "shadow-banned" by Meta - in other words, restricted in how many people see it.

To test this, the BBC carried out the same data analysis on the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organizations such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13. These pages also posted a large amount of war-related content, but their audience engagement increased by nearly 37%.

Meta has previously been accused by Palestinians and human rights groups of failing to moderate online activity fairly.