"Europe’s Largest News Aggregator Orders Editors to Play Down Palestinian Deaths", 19 October 2023

Upday...handed down directives to color the company’s coverage of the war in Gaza with pro-Israel sentiment, according to interviews with employees and internal documents obtained by The Intercept.

Leadership at Upday, a subsidiary of...Axel Springer, gave instructions to prioritize the Israeli perspective and minimize Palestinian civilian deaths in coverage, according to the employees.

“We can’t push anything involving Palestinian death tolls or casualties without information about Israel coming higher up in the story,” an employee told The Intercept, referring to push notifications, the alerts sent to millions of phones...

“We strongly contest the indirect allegations you make,” said Julia Sommerfeld, a representative for the German-based Axel Springer. “Neither have we directed our journalists to ignore civilian casualties in Gaza, nor have we asked our editors to manipulate news coverage, nor was corporate management involved in any editorial decisions. Upday’s editorial guidelines are based on journalistic principles and the (publicly available) Axel Springer Essentials” — a reference to a company statement of values.

Sommerfeld said, “The Upday news coverage follows these principles, and each editorial decision is taken by trained journalists.”

Top Upday officials’ high regard for Israel was apparent in everyday communications: In the company’s Slack, an Israeli flag appears beside the avatar of Upday’s CEO Thomas Hirsch, according to the employees. (Upday did not respond to The Intercept’s direct request for comment.)...

In its directives, Upday warned its employees not to publish any headlines that could be “misconstrued” as pro-Palestinian...Comments made by Israeli politicians dehumanizing Palestinians were to be couched in language emphasizing the magnitude and brutality of Hamas’s attacks on Israel...

According to the employees, the company gave instructions to — in line with Axel Springer’s “Essentials” mission statement— support Jewish people and Israel’s right to exist...