Meta apologizes over removal of Malaysia PM posts on Hamas leader

Anwar’s posts included a video showing the premier on a phone call with a Hamas official, offering his condolences. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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Meta apologizes over removal of Malaysia PM posts on Hamas leader

  • Meta said post was removed by mistake
  • Apologize ccomes a day after Anwar’s office summoned Meta representatives to seek an explanation

KUALA LUMPUR: Tech giant Meta apologized Tuesday for removing social media posts by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim about the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The apology came a day after Anwar’s office summoned Meta representatives to seek an explanation on why the leader’s Facebook and Instagram posts about Haniyeh’s death had been removed.
Meta is the parent firm of the two popular social media platforms.
“We apologize for an operational error where content from the Prime Minister’s Facebook and Instagram Pages were removed,” Meta said in a statement emailed to AFP.
“The content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label.”
The political leader of Palestinian armed group Hamas was killed in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Israel, which has not directly commented on it.
Anwar’s posts included a video showing the premier on a phone call with a Hamas official, offering his condolences.
On Instagram, there was a note by Meta, shared by Anwar, that the posts were taken down because of association with “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
Anwar’s office had described Meta’s removal of the posts as “a blatant suppression of free expression” and demanded an apology from the tech behemoth.
Anwar last week accused the tech giant of “cowardice” for removing his posts.
Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Anwar, who met Haniyeh in Qatar in May, has defended Malaysia’s ties with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group, which launched a deadly attack against Israel on October 7 that triggered the war in Gaza.
Anwar stressed during a visit to Germany in March that Malaysia’s links were with Hamas’ political wing and not with its military arm.


Eurovision Sport, Camb.ai to provide live subtitling for Paralympic Winter Games

Updated 06 March 2026
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Eurovision Sport, Camb.ai to provide live subtitling for Paralympic Winter Games

  • Partnership aims to increase accessibility for all audiences
  • Milano Cortina Games run from Friday to March 15

LONDON: Eurovision Sport, the European Broadcasting Union’s free-to-air streaming platform, will provide live and on-demand subtitling for coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in partnership with AI language company Camb.ai

The service will run across all competition days, allowing viewers to stream all six Paralympic Winter Games sports on Eurovision Sport with real-time subtitles. The Games open on Friday and run through March 15.

Camb.ai will supply contextual speech-to-text transcription for both live and catch-up coverage, which the organizers said would support accessibility without altering the editorial integrity of broadcasts.

Eurovision Sport Managing Director Alan Fagan said the aim was to make the Games available to “the widest possible audience,” by scaling up digital accessibility across every event on the platform.

The initiative forms part of the EBU’s most extensive digital coverage of a Paralympic Winter Games to date and complements member broadcasters’ linear output.

It also reflects a wider industry push to make live sport easier to follow for viewers watching without sound, people with hearing impairments and audiences consuming content on demand.

Camb.ai’s Chief Technology Officer Akshat Prakash said the company was proud to deepen its partnership with Eurovision Sport, describing the platform as a leader in applying new technology to sports coverage.

The two organizations began working together in 2024, when they delivered what they described as Europe’s first AI-powered real-time translated sports commentary during European Athletics events.