Earlier, both social media sites had removed pictures of Anwar with Haniyeh and other leaders from Hamas’ political wing, who the prime minister had met while on a working visit to Qatar in May.

Representatives from Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, were on Monday summoned for a meeting at the prime minister’s office to explain why the posts were taken down.

On Tuesday they issued an apology.

“We apologise for an operational error where content from the prime minister’s Facebook and Instagram pages were removed – and the content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label,” a Meta spokesman said in an emailed statement in response to queries from This Week in Asia.

Checks on Anwar’s Facebook and Instagram accounts showed the content had been restored.

Anwar (left) and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was reportedly killed in a blast in Iran. Photo: Facebook/Anwar Ibrahim

The initial removal irked Malaysians, many of whom demanded that action be taken against Meta for allegedly filtering out anything linked to Palestine.

“I’m fine if we even impose an outright ban (on Meta). There are other social media that are more open,” read a comment on Facebook by user Mohd Helmi Aliarit.

The prime minister’s office said in a statement on Monday that Meta’s actions were discriminatory and “an insult to the legitimate rights of Palestinians to demand justice and human rights”.

“The unilateral decision to filter content without considering the context of the post raises questions on the transparency in Meta’s content policy,” the office said.

It also complained of a disruption to a Facebook live stream by national broadcaster RTM of a Palestine solidarity rally organised by the government on Sunday.

Meta said the disruption was due to a copyright complaint over music played at the rally, which was attended by Anwar and other government leaders.

“While we worked to address this IP concern as swiftly as possible, Malaysians were still able to view the live stream on many other Facebook Pages,” Meta’s spokesman said.

The row comes at a testing time for social media companies operating in Malaysia, after the government reinstated licensing requirements for them and announced plans to impose a “kill switch” on content deemed to be detrimental to Malaysians.

03:05

World reacts to air strikes killing Hamas leader in Iran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut

Malaysia is not the only country that has criticised Meta’s content policy.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused social media companies of actively seeking to “muzzle the Palestinian people’s voices”, days after the government banned Instagram following accusations that the platform blocked condolence posts over Haniyeh’s killing.

Israel and the West have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation, a view that is rejected by most Muslim and Muslim-majority nations, including Malaysia and Turkey.

Haniyeh and his bodyguard were killed in a predawn blast in a government guest house in Iran’s capital of Tehran last Wednesday. It was believed that the explosion was from bombs that were planted in the house, though Iranian officials on Saturday claimed it was caused by a short-range projectile fired at the residence.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a role in Haniyeh’s assassination, while the US – Israel’s chief ally and arms supplier – said it was not aware of nor was it involved in the killing.

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