The tent-camps and building takeovers may have ended last spring when students returned home for summer, but the start of a new academic year means all of these activists are back and are once again trying to influence their peers. That will be more difficult at Columbia and NYU after Instagram deleted the accounts of two pro-Palestinian student groups.

Columbia University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said on Monday that its Instagram account had been removed. The group said on X that it had 124,000 followers and that a new Instagram page it set up was also quickly taken down.

A day later, the People’s Solidarity Coalition at New York University said its Instagram page had been suspended.

Anti-Israel activists around the city lashed Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, accusing it of unfair treatment. Columbia SJP said it had been permanently suspended “with no reason provided and no opportunity for appeal.” 

Social media, including Instagram, has played a major role in how these activists attempt to get their message out. So the loss of these accounts will set them back. Meta, which owns Instagram, set new guidelines over the summer which banned the use of the word "Zionists" as a way to disguise anti-Semitic comments.

The change means that posts on Facebook and Instagram will now be removed if moderators determine they use “antisemitic stereotypes, or threaten other types of harm through intimidation or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists,” Meta said in a blog post...

Many Jewish groups have accused people of referring to “Zionists” rather than Jews as a cover for antisemitic speech, and some welcomed the announcement, with the World Jewish Congress referring to it as a “landmark decision” in a press release.

Presumably the two student groups at Columbia and NYU violated this new policy which is why their accounts were deleted, but Meta hasn't commented directly.

This week, NYU adopted a new policy very similar to the one used by Meta. The use of "Zionist" will no longer be given as a pass in all circumstances. For instance, you can't create a space in the middle of campus and then demand that Zionists not be allowed to enter.

Using code words, like “Zionist,” does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH Policy.  For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity.  Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists.  For example, excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a “no Zionist” litmus test for participation in any NYU activity, using or disseminating tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies about Zionists (e.g., “Zionists control the media”), demanding a person who is or is perceived to be Jewish or Israeli to state a position on Israel or Zionism, minimizing or denying the Holocaust, or invoking Holocaust imagery or symbols to harass or discriminate.

Remember, these institutions aren't doing this because they felt like cracking down on protests. NYU was sued by a group of Jewish students who accused the school of not doing enough to deal with anti-Semitism on campus. In addition, the US Dept. of Education has been investigating the handling of protests at various schools. Reports on the City University of New York and the University of Michigan were released in June. The Dept. found that both schools failed to investigate incidents of harassment based on shared ancestry.

So it's likely that NYU and other schools are looking to get ahead of this for the new semester. They are trying to show more initiative and signs of improvement on campus. No amount of whining by student activists will change the new approach, not when there are lawsuits and federal investigations taking place.