Guertena

Add to that the very visible protest efforts not only from the crowds in Malmö, but also the contestants themselves and the crowd in the arena - the EBU felt the need to edit Israel's performance so that the booing wasn't quite as loud, and even added fake cheering. They kept cutting away from the clearly unhappy audience who turned off all their lights (a 'black sea') to indicate their displeasure.

Then there was the backstage incident with the Dutch team, where EBU camera crews harassed them to the point where the Dutch performed, Joost Klein, snapped back at them - resulting in his unfair disqualification before the final and a lot of anger from the Dutch broadcasters. They refused to give their votes live and are even suing the EBU over it.

Ireland's Bambie Thug managed to successfully sneak in some pro-Palestine messages last minute into their costume, and Switzerland's Nemo, who won the contest, made a pointed speech directed at both the audience and EBU. Feelings were even stronger in the semi-finals, with France's Slimane stopping her own performance to give a speech on stage, and further protests from Australia, Ireland and others.

All through the night there were reports of people registering their disapproval: several guests dropped out and refused to give live votes. Loreen, the incumbent winner, stated her refusal to award Israel in person if they were victorious.

The EBU has lost money and severely damaged its reputation, and for what? It doesn't look like they've gained anything from this. Going forward, people will remember their stance and complicity in Israel's propaganda efforts. It's kind of ironic that next year's show will be in the infamously neutral Switzerland.

Maybe they'll learn from this. Hopefully we will, too. In the meanwhile, don't stop talking about Palestine.

May 11th: Greta Thunberg among several activists arrested during a pro-Palestine protest outside the Eurovision arena, Malmö.

To translate for you because it's in greek it says

"Cancer revolutionary cancer, next do our prime minister "

Where is the International protection the Palestinian people is entitled to when the occupying power violates international law and harms those it is obliged to protect. Aren't Palestinians lives worth saving?

Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic

Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic

Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic

BUT ALSO

A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict

Palestinian Jews exist

Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)

IN THE WAKE of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel this weekend—and the Israeli military’s response—journalists, researchers, open source intelligence (OSINT) experts, and fact-checkers rushed to verify the deluge of raw video footage and images being shared online by people on the ground. But users of X (formerly Twitter) seeking information on the conflict faced a flood of disinformation.

While all major world events are now accompanied almost instantly by a deluge of disinformation aimed at controlling the narrative, the scale and speed at which disinformation was being seeded about the Israel-Hamas conflict is unprecedented—particularly on X.

“For many reasons, this is the hardest time I’ve ever had covering a crisis on here,” Justin Peden, an OSINT researcher from Alabama known online as the Intel Crab, posted on X. “Credible links are now photos. On the ground news outlets struggle to reach audiences without an expensive blue check mark. Xenophobic goons are boosted by the platform’s CEO. End times, folks.”

Rather than being shown verified and fact-checked information, X users were presented with video game footage passed off as footage of a Hamas attack and images of firework celebrations in Algeria presented as Israeli strikes on Hamas. There were faked pictures of soccer superstar Ronaldo holding the Palestinian flag, while a three-year-old video from the Syrian civil war repurposed to look like it was taken this weekend.

As a result, Peden says that he and his fellow OSINT researchers have to spend their time debunking years-old content rather than verifying and sharing real footage from the conflict.

Many of these videos and images racked up hundreds of thousands of views and engagements. While some later featured a note from X’s decimated community fact-checking system, many more remained untouched. And as Elon Musk has repeatedly done in recent incidents, the platform’s CEO made the situation much worse.