We live in an age where it seems impossible to convey the reality of the suffering, injustice and abuse that people are exposed to. When history and lived reality show the incarceration of a population, those in power decide to turn a blind eye and humanity is blatantly brought to a halt.

One of the primary rules of objective reporting is portraying issues and events in an unbiased manner. To that end, let’s call the injustice for what it really is: Palestine is facing oppression, settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing at the hands of an apartheid state. In fact, it stretches over an imperial struggle. The destruction and bloodshed have continued for decades. Now, the world knows it. Except, there’s no denying that mainstream media have severely malfunctioned when it comes to telling the correct story.

Western media outlets are deliberately reporting on the aggressions of the Israeli government as if they were responses to provocations on the part of the people they occupy and oppress. Articles and broadcasts from BBC, CNN and other mainstream news outlets have tended to lean in favor of Israel for its “defence” efforts. The bias can be attributed to several factors – but for the most part, it’s groupthink, and perhaps negligence. The struggle stretches so far back into history that many probably deem it unnecessary to educate themselves on the issue. And it shows.

Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, spoke to Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, and perhaps best climatised the double standards visible in the question statements, “It always starts with the Palestinian reaction, with the symptom of the illness. It never visits the illness.”

Other news channels followed suit with embarrassing headlines. BBC News reported: Israel-Gaza: Rockets hit Israel after militants killed, and CNN said something similar. Israel launches airstrikes after rockets fired from Gaza in day of escalation. More recently: Israeli-Palestinian conflict gives Biden foreign policy headache.

Turning to the May 15 attack on international media outlets in Gaza – including The Associated Press – one thing was made very clear. In this age of information, a government can so easily attempt to cut off a whole population from the rest of the world, and that says something very serious about the times we’re heading towards. After the bombing of conventional media sources, Palestine no longer trends on Twitter. Perhaps that was the intention.

However, while it was becoming more difficult to communicate the scale of crisis even to ourselves; the potential that was once limited to the streets of Arab cities has presently taken form online and globally. The protestors have linked with prominent movements for the rights of minorities; and the social media movement is now attempting to recover and fix decades worth of much-publicised narratives from mainstream media outlets. Images, videos, infographics shared amongst millions for Sheikh Jarrah, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the destruction in Gaza have led to an unprecedented unity amongst supporters of the Palestinian argument. Notable Palestinian platforms on Instagram and Twitter, such as Eye on Palestine and writers from Jerusalem, Mohammed El Kurd amongst others, have noted the escape from “…gatekeepers of mass media”, to reach the world.

People have now become the media; and the strength of it shows as the algorithm bias with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter censors content exposing Israeli violence against Palestinians on the pretext of a “glitch”. The reach of public figures is being curtailed through a restriction on their updates, not to mention the unsubtle drop in engagement on their posts and stories. But fuelled by a generation of tech-savvy youth, online activism persists. Despite the censorship and attempts by the Israeli government to turn the genocide into a Twitter fad, the social media movement is now the new mass protest for Palestine. In addition to that, solidarity swells in streets around the world. And is why content creation and engagement should not stop.

Palestine is not just the sum of its death toll or human rights reports. It will not only be about victims and their oppressors. Palestine has human substance - about power, powerlessness, endurance, loyalty, and most importantly, faith. When you witness a crime against that human substance, you speak up.

Use your voice. Do not stop.

The writer is a student at the National University of Sciences   and Technology