“Banning Green Left from a platform which the people-powered, activist media outlet has used for years to disseminate critical information, build movements and expose injustice and inequity, and take a staunchly anti-capitalist stance is a disgrace,” said New South Wales Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong.
Meta unpublished GL’s Facebook page on March 11 because it included interviews with iconic Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled, who is also a member of the Palestinian National Council, the parliament of Palestine.
GL, along with Socialist Alliance and LINKS, have invited Khaled to speak at the Ecosocialism 2024 conference in Boorllo/Perth in June 28–30.
In comments published on Instagram and X, Leong, an outspoken supporter of the campaign against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, added that this act of political censorship “doesn’t happen in isolation”.
Leong cited, as examples, the “blocking [of] Al Jazeera broadcasting in Israel, the ABC’s sacking of Antoinette Latouf, the mainstream media silence in reporting of the 24/7 picket outside the PM [Anthony Albanese]’s office and the deaths of so many journalists in Gaza”.
“It is at times like this, when people-powered, socialist, independent media is most crucial [when] private media interests are dominating our political and social spheres and corporate players are determining what information is shared, there is cause for much concern,” Leong said.
“Palestinians are suffering on a mass scale, and our government is failing to take meaningful action and call for an end to Israel's genocide, occupation and oppression.
“Press freedom and digital rights must be protected. They are human rights. They are fundamental to a healthy democracy and they are critical to ensuring we can build a collective movement for change.”
GL thanks MP Leong and all the others who have sent us messages of support over Meta’s attempt to silence us. If you would like to send a message of support, please email it to us.
The giant social media corporations act with impunity, invariably to support the oppressors against the oppressed, and right now are making a concerted effort to silence voices of Palestinian resistance, as we reported in the previous issue.
The sustained mass protests against Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Australian government’s shameful support has been winning the battle for hearts and minds for a just peace. But the more isolated the pro-Israel camp becomes, the more it has to resort to censorship, silencing and intimidation.
In the meantime, there is a way readers can break the social media bans and restrictions on GL’s voice-for-the-resistance journalism: become a supporter and get GL delivered to you (in hard copy, or digital, or both).
GL is on a drive for new supporterships. We are appealing to readers and current supporters to help us out by urging friends, family and workmates to become supporters. It costs as little as $5 a month.
It is always a challenge to keep people-power media projects alive.
But GL has been going since 1991 and, with your help, we will not let a giant social media corporations silence us.