Solo Episode: Genocide, Social Media and Censorship

Shehla: Hi, everyone. May peace be on you all, and welcome to another episode of I'm A Muslim (And That's Okay!). As always, I'm your host, Shehla. And I'm back with a solo episode. It's been a while since I've done one of these. It's been an interesting couple of weeks personally. Globally, we're a mess, okay? Can't deny it anymore. We are a huge mess. Especially, not particularly just because of the genocide in Palestine, but Palestine is literally just one of-- I think I was counting and I think six genocides. There's a genocide also in Congo, Sudan, the Uyghurs, in Myanmar of the Rohingya, and in Armenia. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting it. That's the awfully horrific part of this that-- There should not be any genocide, okay, but there are so many that I'm forgetting how many there are. And dear God, but yeah, it's been a lot. 

For Palestine, mad salute to all the people that are trying to get information out from there. The young journalists, Motaz and so many other of the young journalists. Somebody had posted up their ages, and Motaz is like the eldest. He's 25. The rest of them are all younger than him. I can't even imagine, like, I have 20 years on all of these young heroes. And the most inconvenience that I've experienced in my life that-- Yeah, when I started out, my journey in the US, my car was broken into-- I guess if you had to put it in any context, one of those things that really sticks with you, but a genocide and a war, dear God. 

It's been interesting trying to put spotlight to it as is there have been many communication blackouts within Palestine itself. But then when we have news information, media that comes out from Palestine, us, you know social media people influencers, I'm not an influencer, but someone with social media presence, we're having a tough time trying to get that information out there. Make no mistakes. It's not been easy. And I posted about this before on my Instagram. So if you're just hearing me on your favorite podcast platform, please do follow me on Instagram and on YouTube. It's where I post my other stuff. There are certain things that really, I can't put out as a podcast episode. 

For this instance, I had created what was my cover version of a Zombie by The Cranberries, and I put it out on social media, sort of a protest against what is happening in Palestine. I can't really upload that as a podcast episode because there is imagery that goes with it which gives it a lot more context. So please do follow me on Instagram and on YouTube. The handle in both places is @imamuslimpodcast. The link to both of those are always in my show notes. So you can always find them. And I will also put in a link to that video of my cover version of Zombie. It's not really fantastic, fabulous singing or anything. There's not even any music to it. It's all acapella. But I was really moved to do this, even though I'm what you would formally describe as a bathroom singer, nothing more than that. I've never really sung apart from this in front of any mic stage or anything of that sort, but I felt so compelled that I just had to do it. 

Things got a little interesting after that. I'm going to tell you that because yeah, I was getting shadow banned right, left, and center. Even before that, when you post in support of Palestine, that's something that really all Muslim influencers and those who are our allies, who, even though they're not Muslim but they see the truth of the genocide and they post about it, they're getting it too. There is definite shadow banning happening. Our numbers drop significantly. And in all honesty, I'm like a small-time creator, okay? On the podcast platform and even on social media platforms, I'm small-time creator. I'm not really racking up numbers. But even with that, my visibility had gone down significantly. 

After the video came out, I found out through a mutual friend that when I was posting comments on other people's posts, that my comments were hidden. And that post, I was just thanking the creator. It was not even like overt, like, a pro-Palestinian, I guess comment. It was just like, “Thank you for putting this up.” And that's it. But apparently, Instagram was quite offended by my-- I don't know. Thank you. I don't know. [laughs] But yeah, that's the thing that starts happening to creators. I even made a video on that that doing metrics comparisons about how that protest song of mine was scoring so low on TikTok and on Instagram. And it came in terms of visibility, even though-- Again, compared to other creators, my numbers are low. But for a video, which I would say, if you even saw it in terms of entertainment value, and I hate to even put it that way, but it had more pull to it, but it was being suppressed. There's no other way to put it. And I did the numbers comparison to that. If you guys want, I'll put a link to that video as well, so you can see. It's a little old now. The stats have increased just a bit. But at that time, when I had uploaded it onto TikTok and to Instagram, it definitely fared far poorer. I had to literally send that video into the DMs of my friends and all just so it would gain visibility. That's how hard it was for me to get traction for that video. 

And not just that, this is the terrible part about this, okay? After a couple of weeks, I'd gone to Pakistan, had to visit my dad. He's not been well. So got to see how he's doing, see how my mom's doing and all. But it was a nice trip. I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to upload that music video onto YouTube. I was like, “Maybe one more platform. Hopefully, maybe just a little more traction for it.” So I uploaded the video onto YouTube from over there and one, two, three, four, and again, small time creators. I'm not racking up numbers, okay? But you expect a certain amount. And after about two days, I get a notification from YouTube that my video has been age restricted. 

I'm still iffy on that. I guess you could say there is some graphic imagery, but when you consider everything else that's on YouTube, I was like, “It's not as graphic.” But okay. We're going to even take-- Okay, you want to put an age restriction on my video. Fine. Put an age restriction on my video. So it's 18 plus now. But somebody had commented on it before-- actually, after the age restriction had been put in. It was a positive comment, sort of an encouraging comment. But that comment, it would show that the comment is there, but it wouldn't show up. What happens is is that every time creators get a comment, they do get a copy of that comment within their email as well. So I could see what that comment was on my email, but it wouldn't show up when I would go on my YouTube page. So I couldn't contest the 18 plus age restriction, even though I tried, but they declined, and I was like, “Okay, fine. You put the age restriction on, but at least let the comment show.” 

I complained about that, told them that there's a comment there, but it's not showing up. And two days later, guess what? They deleted the comment as well. I've got the receipts, okay? [laughs] I know that there was a comment there. But yeah, that's what's been happening. It's been a really rough ride for all the influencers, Muslims or not, who have been posting pro-Palestinian content. There is definitely a lot of suppression. And it's not just about pro-Palestinian content. A, there's suppression on social media, but also in news outlets, not just for Palestine. If you look at the genocides in Congo, in Sudan, there's almost no media coverage about this. A man set himself on fire in, and I'm hoping I'm saying this correctly. In Congo, just so that the world would pay attention to what is happening. And for those who are unfamiliar, in Congo, the genocide is related to the EV industry. Not just electric vehicle industry, but to the rechargeable and electrical battery industry at large. It's a huge market now, especially with the gaining popularity of electric vehicles. 

Congo has one of the largest supplies of [unintelligible [00:11:43] and cobalt, both are required to create rechargeable batteries and other electronical, I guess parts for electronical circuitry. It's big money for big industries, but people are being enslaved, tortured, beaten, raped for this commodity. And so far two million people have died. It is absolutely horrifying when you read statistics about that. But nobody in the mainstream media is covering it, this as well. Apart from the other genocides that I'd mentioned previously, there is no coverage. And that's really a tragic part about this. It is because it's a genocide relating to black and brown people, people of color that the world is just so okay with turning a blind eye. 

It's absolutely disheartening, especially as a person of color, that the past few weeks have also been very eye opening on a personal level. Because again as I'd mentioned, in Palestine, at least there is evidence, video, information, media coming out from Palestine, even if it's trickling out about what is really happening. And even with that, there's so many people that around me that are choosing to stay silent. It really puts a lot of things in perspective, not just for me but for other people of color as well that how much do other people have our back? How much will they support us in our time of trial? And unfortunately, it's not too many. And please don't get me wrong. I see the support that's coming in from other creators on social media. And they're pushing hard. I see the protests. I see the people joining the protests. But those are, when you look at the bigger picture, a really small portion of the people who should be speaking out in outrage. None of this is complicated. 

And let me be clear on this, especially when the discussion of Palestine comes in the popular rhetoric is is that, “Oh, but don't you support the people who were killed on October 7th-- The Israelis who were killed on October 7th and the people who are taken hostages.” Listen, I don't think that needs to be mentioned. Of course, nobody really wants the taking of innocent lives and kidnapping of innocent people. Nobody. Nobody with a conscience. Let's put it this way. I certainly would not want that for anybody. The aftermath is not an equivalent. What the Palestinian people have suffered for over 75 years and have now suffered a tenfold since October 7th. I keep looking at the stats over and over and over again, and they keep increasing over and over again. I think it's more than 12,000 now. 12,000 Palestinians have been killed, which includes 5,500 children. 

If you think that that retaliation is fair and equivalent, y’all need to really, really take a good heart stock of how you see the world, especially when people of color are involved, that our lives are worth so little. In comparison, nah, man. But yeah. So for everybody who's listening in, take good stock of the fact that when you will look back at all of this, can you really morally say in the future that you are on the right side of things that you truly stand up for justice for all? No. Social justice cause is less important. Let me be clear on that. None is less important. And that's the thing. If you can stand up for one but not the other, there's a problem. There really is. 

So at this point, it doesn't matter what social justice cause it is. For the sake of our children, for the future, we have to stand up and stand behind all of it. And yeah, ain't going to make you a lot of friends, for sure. I've had to cut some people off as well, because yeah, the silence was very telling. The silence, the lack of acknowledgment was very telling. So, shoop, I cut those people off. And I know for a lot of people, it's not going to be that easy y’all when you're sitting around the table for I guess Thanksgiving dinner. Although, I think at this point, we need to reconsider that as well, considering indigenous genocide as well. But getting to the point, when you're with your family or you're around the table, these things are not going to make for comfortable discussion. But real change, real justice does not come in a place of comfort. It always comes in a place of discomfort. So if you really consider yourself somebody who cares about social justice, it's time to get uncomfortable. That's all I'm going to say. 

Ooh, before I forget, to all my people who have been listening to my podcast, huge, huge shoutout to all of you. I don't even know how this is happening. I think out of all of this in the past couple of weeks when I've been sitting there and literally doom scrolling and getting madder and madder and madder at the world, I suddenly get very surprising notifications because small time podcaster, and I was expecting after four years with the stats slowly ticking up. I was close to 5,000 downloads. I was like, “Hey, that's great.” [laughs] I know it's pretty tragic, but I got to my 5,000 downloads and then surprise, surprise, three days later, it jumped to 7,500. I was like, “Dear gosh, what's going on?” And within a week, I got 3,000 more downloads. I was like, “What's going on?” And just two days ago, I reached 10,000 downloads. So thank you to everybody who's been listening to the podcast. 

I am so, so, so, so grateful to all of you. I can't thank you all enough. If you find my podcast entertaining, educational, anything, please do reach out to me. You can send me a message through my Instagram. Please if you're not following me on Instagram, do so. Links are in my show notes or you can send me a message through my website. The link is www.imamuslimpodcast.com. Again, the links are always in the show notes, so you can reach out to me. I'll put in my email address in the show notes as well. You can send me an email. I am so grateful to all the new listeners. Thank you. Because even though after four years, it's not about the numbers anymore, I'm just happy to be able to provide information, knowledge, whatever it is I can. If you have suggestions for me for what I should cover in future episodes, who should I have as guests, please let me know. I would more than happy to try my best to oblige. 

So thank you to everybody who's been listening in and watching me on YouTube. Y’all take care of yourself and take care of the people around you, whether it is in your immediate vicinity or globally. We need support and help for the people of Palestine and the people who are suffering from silent genocides all over the world. We need help and support in the most dire way possible. So please do the best you can, even if it is just sharing information, creating awareness. Take care of yourself and may peace be on you all. 

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Thank you so much for tuning in to I'm A Muslim (And That's Okay!). And if you wish to follow my social media for more updates, you can follow me on Instagram, on Facebook and on YouTube. All the links to those are in the show notes. And if you are on Apple, or on Spotify, on Podchaser, please do give my podcast a five-star rating. It really does help get me in the public eye. And if you wish to donate to support the podcast, you can do so through the PayPal link in my show notes as well. Take care.