Archive · 13 Aug 2025
Gaza’s Reality on Social Media: A Struggle for Memory
Imagine a news feed that shows everything at once, like wars, jokes, and ads.
The problem is important news, such as the events in Gaza, gets buried quickly.
Social media companies control what people see, sometimes blocking or hiding posts about sensitive topics.
They do this using automated systems, and governments also police online speech.
To remember important events, we need to save information outside of social media, like in independent archives.
This way, people can learn about and remember these events.
It is about making sure that important stories stay in the public eye.
Gaza's destruction is happening in real-time but is quickly forgotten due to the nature of social media.
Platforms prioritize content that overshadows important events like the conflict in Gaza.
Social media algorithms and censorship actively suppress content related to the conflict.
Governments are taking legal action against creators who criticize foreign policies.
Resisting forgetting involves building independent archives and challenging platform dynamics.
- Who
- Individuals, journalists, and activists are documenting the conflict, but the platforms often suppress this information.
- What
- The ephemeral nature of social media is causing the swift forgetting of events such as the conflict in Gaza.
- When
- The forgetting happens in real time.
- Where
- Across various social media platforms.
- Why
- Platforms prioritize content that generates engagement, leading to the displacement of critical news.
Those Supporting Remembrance
Those facilitating the Forgetting
Memory vs. Forgetting
Those Supporting Remembrance
Advocate for archiving and remembering the events.
Those facilitating the Forgetting
Believe that constant scrolling causes quick forgetting of events like the conflict in Gaza.
Censorship and Algorithms
Those Supporting Remembrance
Strive to document events and resist censorship.
Those facilitating the Forgetting
See that algorithms and censorship are suppressing the voices of important stories.
- Issue
- Forgetting of events on social media.
- Location of event
- Gaza
- Main idea
- Social media censorship.
- Author
- Assistant professor of Political Theory, Jindal Global Law School