San Francisco, May 24 (IANS): Pro-Palestine activists have hit Facebook with a coordinated campaign where they have been successful in pushing down the app review rating of the social networking platform on both Apple and Google app stores.

Facebook is facing thousands of low-rating reviews on both its iOS and Android apps, as the activists protest the company's alleged censorship of Palestinian accounts on its platform.

"The campaign, which is being shared across social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook, calls on people to give Facebook a one-star review in the Apple and Google app stores," NBC News reported on Sunday.

In the last week, the average star rating for the social network was down from over 4 out of 5 to 2.3 out of 5 on Apple's App Store and 2.4 out of 5 on the Google Play after receiving thousands of one-star reviews.

"Many of the reviews include comments mentioning Facebook's alleged silencing of Palestinian voices and hashtags such as #FreePalestine or #GazaUnderAttack," the report mentioned.

Facebook reached out to Apple and Google to get the low reviews removed, but so far, "Apple has declined the request to remove the reviews" and it is not clear yet how Google responded to Facebook's request.

"Our policies are designed to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps, and we apply these policies equally, regardless of who is posting or their personal beliefs," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

"We have a dedicated team, which includes Arabic and Hebrew speakers, closely monitoring the situation on the ground, who are focused on making sure we're removing harmful content, while addressing any enforcement errors as quickly as possible," the company spokesperson was quoted as saying.

A relative calm has dominated the Gaza Strip after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militants came into effect in the besieged enclave after 11 days of bloodshed.