If you want to send money to help the Palestinian cause, there is a high chance your payment might get blocked somewhere. Same thing if you want to make a game about the Palestine experience and are trying to get it published in the app stores.
LaunchGood, a crowdfunding platform catering to Muslims, lost access to three different banks and payment processors. Rasheed Abueideh’s game about the 1948 Nakba was denied funding by publishers and funders for being too controversial, with his earlier game initially rejected by Apple (and reinstated after fierce protests).
The Guardian explores how these problems have led to a slight shift in focus of what it terms ‘halal tech’. Initially, their applications primarily focused on catering to Muslim preferences (e.g. Muzz, a dating app for Muslims). Now, with the genocide in Gaza, many have politicized and taken more of a social justice perspective. PayGood, for example, is trying to build a fair payment processor without discrimination, and Boycat, a site that helps you (among other causes) in identifying and avoiding companies that support the occupation.
See: Halal tech: how Muslim-friendly websites and apps blossomed in 2024 and Halal tech: how Muslim-friendly websites and apps blossomed in 2024 at The Guardian.
Image from the original Guardian article, by Makani.