Social Media Coverage of Gaza and its Effects on Businesses
Fighting pro-Israel narratives on social media has led to calls for boycotting brands that support Israel, affecting on global brands.
Stories, reels, carousels, and whatnot have helped people in Gaza and many pro-Palestinian netizens shed light on Israel committing atrocities in Gaza, which started after Oct. 7, 2023.
Despite shadowbanning and deletion of social media accounts, many journalists and social media users have powered through to bring the truth of Israel’s war on Gaza to the world.
Fighting pro-Israel propaganda on social media about the war on Gaza has led to calls for boycotting brands that support Israel, which has negatively impacted many global brands.
Read More: Al Shifa Hospital Attacked in Gaza
Journalists in Gaza
Journalists like Wael Al Dahdouh, Motaz Azaiza, Plestia Alaqad, Bisan Owda, and Hind Khoudary are among many journalists who shared their stories from the ground through their social media profiles despite having limited internet access and having to risk their lives and families every day to share with the world the ongoing war in Gaza.
These journalists have been netizens’ only source of information about the ongoing war in Gaza because of the disinformation (deliberate dissemination of false information) prevalent on social media and other media platforms.
After the Israeli forces raided Al Shifa Hospital in November 2023, a seven-minute video was published, which showed weapons hidden in the hospital. When BBC Verify checked the video, it was revealed to have been edited and filmed before the arrival of journalists.
Besides this disinformation on social media, mainstream media such as the British media have also been in hot waters for their biased coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza for dehumanizing Palestinians, according to a recent report from the Muslim Council of Britain’s Centre of Media Monitoring (CfMM).
Despite the reach and dominance of these mainstream media narratives, Palestinian journalists in Gaza accrued many followers on social media as they continued to challenge pro-Israeli narratives justifying the war against Palestinians in Gaza and shed light on the harrowing reality on the ground.
With Palestinian journalists’ coverage reaching millions of followers, social media users around the world have reshared these stories to promote the boycott movement of brands which have been traced to show sponsorship of Israel.
Shadowban on Content About War in Gaza and Alternative Means to Share News
Image source: @humanmovieteam.
With the intense shadowbanning on Instagram and other platforms, social media users and creators have found alternative ways of sharing news from Palestine. Netizens are using the watermelon emoji in their hashtags, representing Palestine, to share news and content about the war in Gaza.
They are also using alternative, unrelated hashtags about the war in Gaza to ensure their content does not get shadowbanned.
Social media influencers have also dedicated their Instagram content to creating skits to fight disinformation.
One such influencer Rathbone uses humor to criticize the Western world's support for Israel, which helps counter the pro-Israeli narratives boosted on social media justifying the attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
Promoting Boycotting Companies and Brands Supporting Israel
Since the start of the war in Gaza, social media users have created and pushed content around boycotting brands supporting Israel. This movement is part of the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which has been running since 2005.
The boycott movement has garnered large traction on social media with #boycottisrael receiving about 340 million views and #BDS receiving almost three billion views on TikTok as of January.
Social media users have created various kinds of content about boycotting Israeli-sponsored brands from videos about what beauty brands to boycott to videos about what alternative brands to shop from.
The social media push to boycott these brands has led to the promotion of alternative brands. Two Palestinian brothers in Sweden created an alternative brand to the popular soft drink Coca-Cola, called Palestine Cola. Profits from the sales are to be donated to Palestinians affected by the war.
Big chains like Mcdonald's, Starbucks, and others have reported negative impacts on their businesses because of the boycotts.
McDonald's experienced a decrease in the growth target for sales in the Middle East and globally from October to December 2023.
In the Middle East, the company achieved 0.7 percent growth during that time, while globally it achieved 3.4 percent, which was less than the 8.8 percent growth it had achieved in the preceding quarter.
Similarly, Starbucks reduced its annual sales forecast to four to six percent from five to seven percent in the US and globally.
Other than your go-to coffee and fast food brands, popular fashion brands have also faced the negative impact of boycotts.
Zara released an insensitive ad campaign that depicted dead bodies wrapped in white cloth symbolizing Palestinians killed during the Gaza war, which faced severe backlash on social media because the campaign dehumanised Palestinians.
Although the brand explained that they had produced the campaign before the war in Gaza, releasing it during the war did not help their cause at all. Protests happened outside of Zara outlets in certain countries with netizens calling for people to boycott the brand, despite it not being part of the boycott movement initially.
The negative impact on global brands has emphasized the power and impact of social media on content created and shared about Gaza. Although the BDS movement is more than a decade old, this time it has proven its mettle and will continue to do so until it has achieved fruition.