‍Terms of Servitude shows how social media, once instrumental in advancing the Palestinian struggle, has become a new tool of anti-Palestinian suppression. Omar Zahzah explores the paradox whereby major digital platforms like Meta, Google, and X – initially spaces for activism and advocacy for Palestinian liberation – now help fortify Zionist settler-colonialism. Through anti-Palestinian censorship and erasure, often justified by so-called “terms of service” or “community standards” violations, these Big Tech companies provide the Israeli occupation with AI technologies and metadata that streamline genocidal colonial violence.

Through original analysis and careful documentation, Zahza traces a timeline from the Sheikh Jarrah uprisings of 2021 to October 2023 and the most current developments, showing how social media has both advanced and suppressed Palestinian narratives. This urgent and revealing book considers what makes anti-colonial counter-narratives across digital platforms so necessary – and what resistance must mean in an era defined by the consolidation of Big Tech with Israeli colonialism and genocide.

"From social media censorship to the pernicious surveillance of Palestinians and their supporters, Omar Zahzah chronicles the intimate involvement of American Big Tech corporations in Israel’s unrelenting settler-colonial project. Terms of Servitude provides a guide to understanding and resisting digital settler colonialism. It is a timely and urgent read for everyone concerned with the fate of Palestine."—Michael Kwet, author of Digital Degrowth: Technology in the Age of Survival