After Bella Hadid accused Instagram of “bullying” after they seemingly removed a photo of her dad, Mohamed Hadid‘s passport, the social media app issued an apology.
“To protect the privacy of our community, we don’t allow people to post personal information, such as passport numbers, on Instagram. In this case the passport number was blurred out, so this content shouldn’t have been removed. We’ve restored the content and apologized to Bella for the mistake,” Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, told Page Six in a statement.
For those who missed it, on Tuesday, July 7, the model called out the platform after they removed her Instagram Stories post showing a photo of her dad’s birthplace in Palestine. She posted a screenshot of the notice Instagram shared with her about why they removed the image and added her own caption.
“Instagram removed my story that only said, ‘My baba And his birthplace of Palestine’ with a photograph of his American passport,” she explained in a since-expired snap. “@Instagram exactly what part of me being proud of my father’s birth place of Palestine is ‘bullying, harassment, graphic or sexual nudity?’”
She continued, “Are we not allowed to be Palestinian on Instagram? This, to me, is bullying.”
She then added, “You can’t erase history by silencing people. It doesn’t work like that.”
After her initial post was seemingly deleted, Bella shared another photo of her dad’s passport alongside captions that read, “Do you want me to change his birthplace for you?”
“I am proud to be Palestinian,” she said. “Everyone should post where their mother and fathers were born today! Remind them of how proud you are of where you come from!”
Members of Bella’s family — including sister Gigi Hadid and her dad — also reposed her Instagram Stories to their own profiles.
Bella has yet to publicly address their apology.
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