Social networks are emerging phenomena that liberated the monopoly of speech from the domination of powerful media and states and individuals that dominated the media and allowed everyone to express their opinions in a free space.
While less than three decades have passed since the emergence of influential and inclusive social networks, their impact on everyday life, the world of politics, economics, and even international relations is evident.
Today, these networks, with a high penetration rate have been accepted amongst all walks of life in the world, becoming a source of insight and impact on their audience, even for politicians and leaders of countries.
The emergence of social networks initially gave rise to hope for some who thought it would guarantee the freedom of expression forever that the Westerners claim to be their main property. But it did not take long for optimism about social networks to turn into new concerns in the everyday lives of the people, even in the international environment and conflicts among governments.
With the increasing use of these networks by peoples and governments, the fears of the bullying, especially the Western ones, of the influence of other countries on their public opinion, led the West, and in the United States, to act in contradiction with the claim to support freedom of expression.
One of the most important international tensions with social networking at its center was formed in 2016 US presidential election, which became one of the most controversial topics in its domestic politics.
The United States accused the Russian government of influencing the elections during this presidential election in a variety of ways, including through social networks.
Although the Russian government did not accept the charge, the United States shut down some Moscow-related accounts on social networks along with various measures, such as expelling Russian diplomats and closing some of its diplomatic sites.
Facebook and Twitter, although apparently are private companies, have, in many cases, been taking sides the United States government, as opposed to what they are claiming on policies of freedom of expression.
In November 2017, Twitter stopped Russia Today and Sputnik state news agency in the network claiming that the media had been interfering in the 2016 presidential election. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that the cancellation of ads on Twitter pages on the Russia Today channel and the Sputnik news agency was a move taken by US intelligence agencies.
Also, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the beginning of 2018 attended the US Senate's judicial committee to report on the company's cooperation with Robert Muller, a special investigator in a case related to claiming Russia's involvement in American political developments.
The main reason for this is the scam associated with Cambridge Analitika, a company that has partnered with Trump's campaign headquarters and has been charged with maintaining some information from Facebook users after having promised to remove it.
The company helped Trump presidential campaign with unauthorized access to the thousands of Facebook users' personal information and psychological analysis. But this is not the only Facebook scandal in what appears to be an inability to keep personal information from users, and according to some experts, these companies sell their information to governments.
Facebook announced in October 2018 that the accounts of 50 million members of the network were hacked and personal information of 29 million of them were stolen, such as name and contact information, including phone number or email (or both), username, gender, language and location, the status of relationship, religion, place of residence, current residence, birthday, devices used to access Facebook, the status of education and work, as well as 10 of the last places where they have connected to Facebook, had been stolen by the perpetrators.
But Russia is not the only victim of American bullying in social networks. In March, Facebook closed the account of Ansarullah's Yemeni political office following the release of the anti-compromise statement with the Zionist regime.
Also less than 6 months earlier, the Facebook branch of the Occupied Palestinian Territory removed thousands of accounts from this social network at the request of the Office of Homeland Security of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Zionist regime.
The company also banned the release of revealed images of the Zionist terrorist special forces in operation against the people of Gaza Strip last December.
Earlier, WikiLeaks disclosed that the Zionist regime had set up a virtual command center in Tel Aviv to monitor the activities of social network users around the globe, spying on all Facebook and Twitter users with the knowledge of the directors of the two social networks.
Facebook and Twitter and Google’s accompanying with the US hostile policies against Iran is more evident than other countries, institutions and individuals.
Facebook said in mid-August 2018 that it removed 652 use pages related to Russia and Iran from its social networks, including Instagram.
The company announced its actions as invalid coordinated behaviors and an attempt to influence the US election, but failed to determine that there was a connection between Russian and Iranian users. Twitter has also suspended 284 user accounts linked to Iran.
Google will also follow the same action of the two companies the following day, and blocked 58 accounts on YouTube, Blogger and Google Plus, claiming to communicate with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the charge of trying to direct the political space and conduct phishing attacks.
But the widespread elimination of these companies increased with subsequent announcements. Last February, MSNBC reported that Facebook and Twitter have removed thousands of user accounts associated with Russia, Iran and Venezuela on charges of trying to influence the election.
In this action, Twitter eliminated 2,600 Facebook accounts and 763 pages, groups and accounts associated with Iran, along with thousands of accounts linked to Russia and Venezuela.
According to Facebook, one of these pages had at least 2 million followers and all of these pages and user accounts spent a total of $ 30,000 on Facebook and Instagram advertising.
While such news became the regular routine for these social networks, Facebook earlier this month also announced the removal of 513 pages, groups and user accounts associated with Iran.
These social networks, in most of their previous actions, announced falsification, and dissemination of accusations as excuse for the elimination of accounts that were contrary to US bullying policies. But the latest elimination of these companies, claiming freedom of expression, has also proven the void of this gesture.
On April 16, in an unprecedented move to the English-language account of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei as well as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander; Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Major General Qasem Soleimani and Brigadier General Hossein Salami were out of access on Instagram.
The spokesman for the Instagram Network stated that the move was in line with placing the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps on the list of the US foreign terrorist organizations.
But the roots of what these social networks and oppressors dominating these network under the pretext of influencing the election or publishing fake news should be pursued in the White House's fear of spreading anti-Zionist discourse and anti-American spirit.
The endorsement of this is the unprecedented support of the Donald Trump government for the Zionist regime and its unprecedented and successive gifts to the criminals of this regime, which did not have any record even for the White House's predecessors.
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Tehran, April 18, IRNA - America, which claims to defend Western values such as freedom of speech and democracy, does not tolerate these values where it is a platform to express dissenting views and covers up its real face and boycotts opposition voices even in cyberspace.
