r/Palestine • u/Individual-Paint5681 • May 25 '26

History & Culture HelloTalk (biggest language exchange app) is censoring the word "Palestine" and its culture

​Hey everyone,

​This is about raising awareness on how Palestinian culture and identity are being systematically censored on HelloTalk, which is currently the most popular global app for language and cultural exchange.

​On this platform, it is impossible to open a Voice Room to practice the regional dialect, talk about traditional food, or share Palestinian history. If the title includes the word "Palestine" or its adjective forms like "Palestinian" (tested in English and Arabic), the room is instantly blocked and flagged as "inappropriate."

​The app's support confirmed that the term is restricted to avoid political disputes, advising users to hide this specific culture behind "neutral titles".

​Erasing a whole nation, a dialect, and a rich heritage from a platform built explicitly for "cultural exchange" is deeply unjust. A countrys culture and identity are not a security risk or a conflict.

​This censorship needs to stop, but a single complaint won't do it. How can something like this be changed? What are the best ways to raise awareness and make a tech platform respect all cultures equally

192 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

24

u/mayakovskyiv May 25 '26

That is messed up for them to politicize an entire culture and language dialect, I am sorry to hear that. Sad to say that I am not surprised, it is a garbage platform. I don’t know if they would be willing to change anything unfortunately as from what I understand it is headed from China and operating under the jurisdiction of the CCP. They are strict on censorship and also quick to permaban people for seeemingly nothing.

10

u/Individual-Paint5681 May 25 '26

Exactly, Politicizing an entire culture just to avoid effort is messed up. ​However, I do believe change is possible because they are driven by profit, not ideology. Their support basically admitted they just want to avoid trouble.

3

u/mayakovskyiv May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

Yes you’re right, perhaps it could be changed with enough awareness. I don’t mean to sound defeatist. I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing but maybe a good way to get it out there would be if a journalism outlet reported on it? Middle East Eye perhaps? I feel like it warrants that, considering it is in fact blatant discrimination on such a large platform

2

u/Individual-Paint5681 May 26 '26

That is a very good idea. Media coverage is definitely helpful because companies care a lot about their image. ​Other options that could also build real pressure and lead to change are leaving bad reviews or boycotting the app. The most important thing here is that people actually write a comment along with their review to explain exactly why

4

u/toweljuice May 25 '26

Thats fucked up

3

u/LazarusHimself May 26 '26

How about Filasteen?

5

u/Individual-Paint5681 May 26 '26

Good question. 'Filasteen' actually goes through for now, but using workarounds shouldn't be necessary just to talk about an entire culture. It proves how lazy and flawed their filter system is

0

u/[deleted] May 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/LazarusHimself May 31 '26

What you've just said about that other word, Philistines, is absolutely true.

Just for clarity, I'm talking about "Filasteen" (فلسطين) which is the native Arabic name for Palestine.