Meta removes Egyptian show from live Facebook over Gaza coverage

Kaswaa El-Khelaly stated that Facebook’s owner, Meta, had removed the live broadcast of Sunday’s episode of her show “In the Evening with Kuswah” on the Egyptian CBC TV due to its coverage of the Gaza war.

The deleted episode revolved around the current situation of the Palestinians amid the ongoing truce, and what will happen next when the ceasefire expires.

El-Khelaly hosted Mohamed Saad Abdel-Hafiz, the managing editor of Al-Shorouk newspaper, Alaa El-Ghatrify, the editor-in-chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm, and Ezzat Ibrahim, the editor-in-chief of Ahram Online and Al-Ahram Weekly.

Samuel Werberg, Director of the US State Department’s Dubai Regional Media Hub and one of the main Arabic-speaking spokespersons for the US government, was also featured in the episode via telephone.

Werberg labelled Hamas as a terrorist organisation, but El-Khelaly made it clear that this is the official US position on the organisation—not Egypt’s official position.

Later, El-Khelaly asked him about the current procedures that Washington is taking to extend the current truce, to which he refrained from answering due to connection issues – he was heard saying that it was difficult for him to hear- eventually, the interview ended after he cut the call short suddenly.

El-Khelaly claimed that Meta removed the show’s live Facebook broadcast as soon as the first segment of the episode concluded and the second segment got underway, which baffled its producers.

Meta claimed in its official explanation for pulling the live broadcast that it broke the platform’s rules despite the fact that the show complies with all international media and journalism standards.

The TV host believes that the deletion is due to the course of the interview with Werberg, according to a statement she released on Facebook.