According to articles and publications noted on social networks, Meta, parent company of Facebook, would have sanctioned the Irish Basketball Federation by closing its Instagram account. Still according to these assertions, this closure would be a sanction after the players of the women’s team refused to shake hands with their Israeli opponents. This assertion was notably shared on Israelis.
Instagram account reactivated, Meta speaks of an “error”
The Irish federation announced in a press release that it had lost access to its “Basketball Ireland” page on Sunday February 11, and that it had “been informed on Wednesday February 14 by Meta that it was permanently deactivated, via an automated message”. The federation also communicated: “Basketball Ireland received increased media and social media attention before and after the Ireland v Israel FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 qualifier, but nothing was published on our social networks during this period, before or since. »
A second account “ireland.basketball” was created to take over the federation’s communication on Instagram. A few days later, Sunday February 18, the federation assured that its Instagram page had been restored by Meta: “Basketball Ireland was informed by email from Meta on Sunday shortly after 5 p.m., stating that the “account had been deleted by error”. » Information confirmed by Meta to 20 Minutes, which also explains that its teams are in contact with the federation.
Accusations of anti-Semitism
Thursday February 8, during a qualifying match for the European Women’s Basketball Championship between Ireland and Israel, the Irish players decided not to participate in the pre-match formalities. And therefore not to shake hands with their opponents. As the Irish federation communicated on its website, this decision came after accusations of anti-Semitism from Israeli player Dor Saar. The latter had in fact declared during an interview: “we know that they are quite anti-Semitic and it is not a secret, and that is perhaps why we are expecting a strong match. »
“Fake off” surveys here
Already at the end of January, the Irish federation announced that it had “expressed [leurs] serious concerns regarding these matches with Israel, including the possibility of not playing the matches” with the European federation (Fiba), in the context of the war with Hamas. A possibility ruled out due to the risk of receiving a fine of up to 100,000 euros and a ban on participating in the competition’s qualifiers.
2024-02-20 02:25:51
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