Reprinted from Trita Parsi’s Substack:
Over the past few weeks, META’s censorship of my account has reduced my Reel Views by 68%, regular views by 27%, followers by 52%, and engagement by 21%.
This is what happened.
A few weeks ago, I was notified by META that my account would be limited going forward. My account will still be visible – at least for now – but “people will have to scroll longer,” and it won’t be “suggested” to people who aren’t my friends.
According to META, this censorship is because they claim my profile’s “content is unoriginal” and that it “has some issues.” (?!)
Anyone who follows me on META knows that my content is either me posting my own interviews with various outlets (by definition, that is original), my own opeds and commentary (also original), or pictures of my Samoyeds (admittedly, credit here goes to my dogs).
META’s “rules” define “unoriginal” as content that already exists on Facebook if you had no meaningful role in creating it,” “compiling and posting videos from multiple pages,” or “posting videos that you didn’t film or produce.”
Again, my postings really don’t violate these rules. My analysis is original, and most of the videos I post are my own interviews.
But I think we are getting closer to the real problem. I think META’s problem is not the posting of my own interviews (which constitute the majority of my posts), but rather the videos I post from Gaza. The problem, of course, is not that these videos are not my original content – META couldn’t care less about that.
It’s because it is videos documenting Israeli war crimes. Videos that have prompted Israel’s standing among Americans to plummet. Videos that are causing pro-Israeli lawmakers to lose their primary elections. Videos that have been censored from mainstream media and now TikTok, but that have still circulated on social media, partly thanks to accounts like mine.
Indeed, when I dug deeper, the only justification META provided for their censorship was that they had removed two videos of graphic violence I had posted on July 16 and July 30, 2025. That is, a year ago. At the height of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.
Given the absurdity of META’s claim that my content is unoriginal, it appears the real reason is that I – last year – posted graphic videos documenting Israeli war crimes.
META is not a platform I want to be part of anymore or contribute to. Over the course of the next few months, I will be transitioning away from Facebook and moving my activities to Substack. I have not decided whether I will completely close my Facebook account or just keep it dormant in case regime change is achieved at the leadership level of META and their censorship in favor of Israeli crimes is ended.
But for now, I am out, and I welcome you to do the same.
Trita Parsi is the Executive VP of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an award-winning author. Washingtonian Magazine has named him one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy. Noam Chomsky calls him “one of the most distinguished scholars on Iran”
