Model Bella Hadid Accuses Instagram of ‘Shadowbanning’ Her Al-Aqsa Posts

Palestinian American supermodel Bella Hadid claimed Sunday that the photo-sharing app Instagram was “shadow-banning” her, following posts she made on Friday accusing the Israel security forces of brutality in their response to riots at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. “My Instagram has disabled me from posting on my story – pretty much only when it is Palestine based I’m going to assume,” the 25-year-old wrote in a message she posted to Instagram Stories. “When I post about Palestine I get immediately shadowbanned and almost 1 million less of you see my stories and posts,” she wrote. Shadow-banning refers to blocking or partially blocking a user from posting content on an online community or social networking app. Hadid’s latest two Instagram posts about the violence in Jerusalem, published Sunday night, have attracted more than 900,000 and more than 1.7 million likes, respectively. Hadid herself has been accused of shutting down conversation and suppressing free speech on the app; she regularly blocks Israelis from commenting on any of her content, whether it is related to the conflict or not.