Instagram Apologizes to Bella Hadid for Removing Her Father’s Palestinian Roots Post
Renowned model Bella Hadid who takes pride in her Palestinian-Dutch descent, recently took Instagram to task for removing a photograph of her father Mohammad Hadid’s old passport showing Palestine as his birthplace.
“Are we not allowed to be Palestinian on Instagram? This, to me, is bullying,” wrote the 23-year old model as she shared a screenshot of the removal notification in which Instagram had cited ‘bullying and harassment’ as the reason for removing Bella’s post.
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“Instagram removed my story that only said ‘My baba And his birthplace of Palestine’ with a photograph of his American passport. @instagram exactly what part of me being proud of my father’s birthplace of Palestine is ‘bullying, harassment, graphic or sexual nudity?'” the Palestinian-Dutch questioned the social network site.
In response to Bella’s slamming, Facebook who now owns Instagram issued an apology and clarification.
“To protect the privacy of our community, we don’t allow people to post personal information, such as passport numbers, on Instagram. In this case, the passport number was blurred out, so this content shouldn’t have been removed. We’ve restored the content and apologized to Bella for the mistake,” said the social networking company.
Not backing down from the pride of her heritage, Bella continued to take up the case as she once again shared her father’s passport, and urging everyone to share where they are from and be proud of it.
“Do you want me to change his birthplace for you? I am proud to be Palestinian. Everyone should post where their mother and fathers were born today! Remind them of how proud you are of where you come from !!!” the 23-year old sister of Gigi Hadid wrote.
