A pro-Palestinian student group at Columbia University announced that its account has been “permanently banned” from Instagram.
in post On the Xth, Columbia Students for Justice for Palestine explained that their account was permanently deleted when it reached “124,000” followers, adding that when they created a new account, it was “deleted” within two days.
“With the new school year about to begin, Columbia SJP has been permanently banned from Instagram,” the group said in a post on Monday. “Our account was permanently deleted when it reached 124,000 followers at the same time as our backup account, and we created a new page that was deleted within two days.”
With the new school year about to start, Columbia SJP was permanently banned from Instagram. Our account was permanently deleted at the same time as our backup account, when we had 124,000 followers, and we created a new page, which was deleted within two days.
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) August 26, 2024
When asked why their account was banned, the group shared a screenshot from Instagram informing them that their account had been disabled, with Instagram explaining that the group “cannot request a second review of this decision.”
“No reason was given,” the group said. Written“You just can't request a review. The same thing happened to Within our Lifetime a few months ago and they still can't create an Instagram page and it gets deleted within hours.”
No reason given, I just can't request another review. The same thing happened to Within our Lifetime a few months ago and they still can't create an Instagram page without it being deleted within hours. pic.twitter.com/Kgyrx58MxM
— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) August 26, 2024
This comes months after pro-Palestinian protesters set up an anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University on April 17. The following day, several students involved in the encampment were suspended and hundreds of protesters were arrested.
Another encampment was set up at Columbia University and remained there until the end of April, when NYPD officers swooped on the scene after anti-Israel protesters stormed and occupied buildings on campus.
In response to the initial encampment at Columbia University, encampments were established at other universities, including George Washington University, the University of North Carolina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University.
Protesters at the various encampments were request It calls on universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel, for universities to end academic ties with Israeli institutions, for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and for universities to disclose their financial investments.
