Apple refuses removal of Facebook App Pro-Palestinian 'review bomb'

AppleInsider

A coordinated effort giving Facebook one-star reviews on the App Store, and elsewhere, is being treated as severe by the social media giant.

Facebook's average rating on the App Store is reportedly going down

Facebook's app on both Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store have reportedly been targeted by activists protesting against the company's alleged censorship of Palestinian posts. The campaign has been sparked by claims that existing censorship has increased during May's conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The campaigners, some of whose Twitter accounts have now ceased to exist, are asking people to give the app one-star reviews in an effort to reduce the overall rating.

According to NBC News, the Facebook app's average rating across the two stores was previously 4 out of 5. Over the weekend, it dropped to 2.3/5 on the App Store, and 2.4/5 on Google Play.

Go to #Facebook app on Android & Apple stores & rate it 1 star for censoring #Palestinian constant + coverage to silence us. It works, its down to 2.7 stars now, soon down to 1 star hopefully. #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #PalestinianLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/krJUd8fk0E

-- Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza)

May 18, 2021

NBC News reports having seen internal Facebook documents including one from an employee who contacted Apple's developer relations team. Apple was asked to remove the negative reviews, but refused.

There is no information about whether Google was similarly contacted. Neither company has spoken publicly about the issue.

The internal documents do discuss the reasons behind the protest.

"User trust is dropping considerably with the recent escalations between Israel and Palestine," one senior software engineer is said to have written on Facebook's internal message board. "Our users are upset with our handling of the situation."

"Users are feeling that they are being censored, getting limited distribution, and ultimately silenced," he or she continued. "As a result, our users have started protesting by leaving 1 star reviews."

Facebook has issued a statement to NBC News, which denies the accusation of censorship.

"Our policies are designed to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps, and we apply these policies equally, regardless of who is posting or their personal beliefs," wrote Andy Stone, Facebook spokesperson. "We have a dedicated team, which includes Arabic and Hebrew speakers, closely monitoring the situation on the ground, who are focused on making sure we're removing harmful content, while addressing any enforcement errors as quickly as possible."

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ionicle

Couldnt happen to a nicer social media, while i have no real opinion either way, i welcome anything that makes facebook less popular and weakens their stranglehold on the world

lkrupp

Do people actually rely on reviews when it comes to downloading and using Facebook? You either want to use Facebook or you don’t and someone else’s opinion will likely not change your decision in the matter.

opinion

Please everyone, close your Facebook accounts. The world will be a better place without it.

sflocal

There’s so much disinformation on both sides, I don’t see how a company like Facebook can even keep up.  

pk22901

Zuck must have considered his bottom line to be most important. Data trading was too appealing/profitable. ATT is killing that. (And something Jobs and Cook publically advised against years ago.)

Soon, all he will have to work with is Facebook's in-house data collection. Their mass surveillance revenue model is still a problem for the rest of us.

FB's new ad:

Have Data

Will Monetize

Humanity? Who Cares?

bvgk

well ... fb could remove 1 start ratings, just like youtube regularly removes dislikes on Biden whitehouse videos.

sdw2001

This is what's bound to happen with Leftist cancel culture and wokism.  The movement is cannibalistic...it always needs new people, institutions and businesses on which to feed.  It was bound to happen to Facebook, which is run by Leftists, just as Twitter is.  The problem with living by the woke mob is that you have to die by the woke mob.  It's inevitable.  Apple has actually done a remarkable job of staying above the fray. They even handled the Parler situation more quietly.  Sure, conservatives and libertarians were upset, but mostly not enough to boycott.  Facebook and Twitter are more blatant about their ideological bias though.  They have reveled in being tools for the Left to hammer the Right.  They had to know that they, too would be turned upon.  

dysamoria

lkrupp said:

Do people actually rely on reviews when it comes to downloading and using Facebook? You either want to use Facebook or you don’t and someone else’s opinion will likely not change your decision in the matter.

I have the same feeling about this. I’m all for considering the treatment of Palestinians, and all for people being allowed to discuss humanitarian issues, but I don’t see how review-bombing could negatively affect Facebook or the usage of the Facebook app. If Facebook policy is bad, and it is, I really don’t see any way cattle- I mean users can affect it. The only thing that can affect Facebook policy is for large advertisers to threaten to stop buying ads.

dysamoria

bvgk said:

well ... fb could remove 1 start ratings, just like youtube regularly removes dislikes on Biden whitehouse videos.

Obviously they can’t remove the one star ratings. They’ve asked Apple to and- did you read the article??

Also, google doesn’t give a damn about dislikes on YouTube videos. Disliking a video has the same effect as liking it. All they care about is “engagement”. As for your claim that they’re removing dislikes from Biden videos... provide a legit citation of evidence, because you sound like a conspiracy theorist.

cia

Just delete Facebook and be done with the drama. I left 5 years ago and never looked back.

bvgk

dysamoria said:

bvgk said:

well ... fb could remove 1 start ratings, just like youtube regularly removes dislikes on Biden whitehouse videos.

Obviously they can’t remove the one star ratings. They’ve asked Apple to and- did you read the article??

Also, google doesn’t give a damn about dislikes on YouTube videos. Disliking a video has the same effect as liking it. All they care about is “engagement”. As for your claim that they’re removing dislikes from Biden videos... provide a legit citation of evidence, because you sound like a conspiracy theorist.

apple is about doing things quietly  ( how did they handle Parler app? .... both apple and Google pulled down Parler at the sometime , when the app was adding 1M+ users per day and effectively killed it ). but lot more people only remember how unjustly AWS and Google pulled Parler down. At the sometime apple doesn't lift a finger on YouTube and fb apps when they are bigger culprits  

I am stating the facts (if facts are conspiracy, let it be   )

Beats

dysamoria said:

bvgk said:

well ... fb could remove 1 start ratings, just like youtube regularly removes dislikes on Biden whitehouse videos.

Obviously they can’t remove the one star ratings. They’ve asked Apple to and- did you read the article??

Also, google doesn’t give a damn about dislikes on YouTube videos. Disliking a video has the same effect as liking it. All they care about is “engagement”. As for your claim that they’re removing dislikes from Biden videos... provide a legit citation of evidence, because you sound like a conspiracy theorist.

Google removed half the dislikes on the Gillette anti-male ad.

https://youtu.be/koPmuEyP3a0

The comments even confirm it. One comment reads “I come back often to renew my dislike”. 

chadbag

Good idea.  I just went and gave it a 1 star review.  (Clicked one star and then added an actual review).  And not, for the most part because of politics, Palestinians, etc.  The app simply has so many problems that make it not usable.  Like notifying me of new posts in groups I follow, but touching the notification brings me to the group with no new post. New post I was notified about is no where to be found. And now they’ve started putting a lot of video ads in the middle of videos posted.  Making FB videos totally useless.  2-3 video ads inside a 5 minute video. No thanks.  I did touch on the medieval practice of banning folks you disagree with.   But my annoyances are more about the app not functioning or no longer useful with all the abundance of video ads ruining the experience of watching videos.  The static ads in a feed I can ignore. Video ads not so much. 

exceptionhandler

lkrupp said:

Do people actually rely on reviews when it comes to downloading and using Facebook? You either want to use Facebook or you don’t and someone else’s opinion will likely not change your decision in the matter.

Was just thinking the same thing.  The tactic may work on a smaller shop, but not the behemoth that Facebook is.