In a significant act of digital censorship, YouTube has deleted the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups, erasing over 700 videos that documented potential Israeli war crimes and human rights violations in Gaza. The removals, which the tech giant states were conducted to comply with U.S. sanctions, have been condemned by rights advocates as an escalation of efforts to silence Palestinian voices and hide evidence from public view.
The videos, meticulously compiled by Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, served as a crucial digital archive of the conflict. The deleted content included a wide range of evidence, from video investigations into the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier to testimonies of Palestinians who were tortured by Israeli forces. One of the removed films, titled "The Beach," documented the stories of children killed by an Israeli strike while playing. Other videos highlighted the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and featured documentaries on mothers surviving what the groups describe as Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Human rights organizations and legal experts have reacted with outrage, framing YouTube's decision as a direct attack on truth and accountability. A spokesperson for Al-Haq stated that the removal, executed without prior warning, "represents a serious failure of principle and an alarming setback for human rights and freedom of expression". Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, argued that YouTube is "furthering the Trump administration’s agenda to remove evidence of human rights violations and war crimes from public view". Basel al-Sourani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights stated plainly, "By doing this, YouTube is being complicit in silencing the voices of Palestinian victims".
This mass deletion is a direct result of U.S. sanctions levied against the three Palestinian human rights groups in September. The Trump administration imposed these sanctions explicitly because the groups "directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals". This action came after the ICC had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. YouTube confirmed the link, with a spokesperson stating the company is "committed to compliance with applicable sanctions," leading to the termination of the groups' channels and their entire archives. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has called the U.S. sanctions "completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn," warning they will have a "chilling effect" on civil society worldwide.
This incident is not an isolated one but part of a broader pattern where YouTube has been accused of unevenly applying its guidelines to censor content related to Palestinian rights. Prior to this, YouTube had cooperated with campaigns organized by pro-Israeli tech workers to remove content critical of Israel. Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now warned that YouTube's capitulation sets a dangerous precedent, allowing a government to "dictate what information they share with the global audience". She emphasized, "It's not going to end with Palestine," suggesting that such censorship could be leveraged in other conflicts and against other human rights movements in the future.