The parent company of Facebook and Instagram shared on Wednesday that its security staff had detected a possible hacking attempt on pro-Palestinian accounts, resulting in them being locked down.
Meta shared that the Instagram accounts @eye.on.palestine, which has more than 6 million followers, and its backup, @eye.on.palestine2, were both locked on Wednesday, according to an archived description on Google’s search engine.
Related Facebook and Threads accounts were also shut down by Meta on Wednesday.
The accounts were locked as a precaution, with Meta sharing that they would be unlocked after they made contact with the account owners.
The content shared on the accounts was media taken from within Gaza and included videos and images of those injured within the area.
While the decision to lock the accounts may have been for safety reasons, several pro-Palestinians said the move was a clear sign of anti-Palestinian censorship.
However, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone shared on Wednesday that censorship was not the reason for the accounts being locked.
“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,” Stone said in a statement. “We did not disable these accounts because of any content they were sharing.”
Stone shared that the investigation into the potential breach was ongoing but didn’t provide further detail on what led them to believe there was a breach.