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17 Nov 2023

Palestine: Key providers of satellite images have begun to restrict imagery of Gaza

Canva

In November 2023, the media outlet Semafor published a report revealing that several satellite companies were restricting images of Gaza to their users after a New York Times report on Israeli tank positions was published based on the images. According the report companies including Planet Labs restricted or obscured images, while Maxar technologies released images with a significant time delay and Airbus did not share images. A spokesperson for Planet said the company was “working through all of our crisis response processes to try to best support our customers and partners across governments, media, and humanitarian organizations.” and that satellite imagery “must pass all quality thresholds for publication in our catalog,” and these were “standard operating protocols for our product that are not in any way specific to this region or event.”

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Maxar Technologies and Airbus to respond to concerns over the potential impact on the ability of journalists and people to access critical information. Maxar Technologies and Airbus did not respond.