In the past few weeks Instagram removed posts and blocked hashtags about one of Islam’s holiest mosques, Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, because its content moderation system mistakenly associated the site with a designation the company reserves for terrorist organizations.

The mistake is the latest content moderation concern from Instagram and its parent company Facebook, which has faced accusations from users around the world that it’s censored content about Israeli aggression toward Palestinians.

Instagram users posted videos tagged with the hashtag #AlAqsa or its Arabic counterparts #الاقصى or #الأقصى, only to find that their posts had been taken down or hidden from search results. Some notifications showed that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, removed the posts because they were associated with “violence or dangerous organizations.”

As people have used Instagram and Facebook to disseminate information from the ground — from the forced evictions of Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to the violence at Al-Aqsa — some have found their posts blocked or removed.

"We are so sorry this happened. Especially to those in Colombia, East Jerusalem, and Indigenous communities who felt this was an intentional suppression of their voices and their stories – that was not our intent whatsoever," Instagram said.

In a post over the weekend, one employee from Facebook wrote in an internal group that “the external perception is FB is timely silencing political speech and apologizing later.” Facebook’s removal and blocking of some Palestinian content has caused the social network’s employees to speak up internally. Some workers began upvoting a question that asked, “Our integrity systems are failing marginalized groups (see: Palestine, BLM, Indigenous women). What will we do about it?”