Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, announced that it locked several pro-Palestinian Arab accounts with millions of followers after its security staff detected a possible hacking attempt against those accounts, NBC News reported.
One of the accounts was @eye.on.palestine, which had more than 6 million followers on Instagram before it suddenly went dark Wednesday. A backup account, @eye.on.palestine2, was also unavailable Wednesday, as were a related Facebook account and a Threads account, according to NBC News.
The accounts in question focused on posting media from Gaza, including videos and images of injured people, which were generally unverified by international journalists.
The disruption to the accounts sparked anger among followers. In posts on X, some followers interpreted the disappearance of the pages as an example of anti-Palestinian Arab censorship.
Meta, however, said late Wednesday that it had disabled the accounts because of security concerns.
“These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise, and we’re working to make contact with the account owners to ensure they have access,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement quoted by NBC News.
“We did not disable these accounts because of any content they were sharing,” he stressed, adding the investigation was continuing.
In an update Thursday morning, Stone said the company had been able to reach the accounts' administrators and that the accounts would be able to reactivate.
“These accounts were initially locked for security reasons after signs of compromise,” Stone said in a text message. “We’ve helped the account owners regain access and they can reactivate their accounts.”