âSupportingâ Hamas / Al-Qassam Brigades (or Hezbollah, or the PFLP, etc) is functionally meaningless in Europe and North America. You canât send them weapons or money (god I wish). You canât go there and fight with them. You canât send them food. Your words of âsupportâ canât actually do anything (saying this as someone who is 110% supportive of those groups mentioned above). We have no way of affecting the outcome. Saying you support Hamas right now is like saying you support the Jacobites at Culloden. It doesnât actually do anything.
The fact that governments are taking actions like this shows they really do see not just the words but the thoughts and sentiments of the people (especially young people, not because they are young but because of their general opinions) as a threat. Controlling the narrative is critical. It used to be they could control the news media easily, but social media is so much harder for them to keep a lid on. Of course theyâre mostly successful at it, but even if they do have functional control over Facebook, Twitter et al itâs not as tight as the control they have over traditional media. Actions like the one here are how they plan on controlling the narrative, along with banning platforms that donât hand over censorship control to western governments.