TEHRAN, IRAN - JANUARY 14: People take part in an anti-government protest organised by University of ... [+]
After pressure from the White House, Twitter reportedly suspended dozen of accounts from government officials in Iran – as well as in Syria and Venezuela. This move from the micro-blogging service came after Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram each began deleting content that supported Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed earlier this month in a U.S. drone strike.
Facebook's censoring of the pro-Soleimani posts has been called into question by some, even as U.S. Sanctions law bars U.S. companies from providing material support to organizations or countries on the sanctions list. Numerous posts were deleted by the social network for "violating community standards," while some accounts were deleted entirely.
This reportedly included at least 15 Iranian journalists according to the Association of Iranian Journalists (AIJ) in Tehran. In the past week some of the profiles have been restored.
This is not the first time social media accounts linked to the government in Tehran have been suspended or otherwise censored. Last February Twitter removed a tweet linked to Iran's Supreme Leader (@khamenei.Ir) that called for the execution of noted novelist Salman Rushdie.
This month Twitter has censored accounts of Iranian officials, media outlets and activists according to a report from investigative news site Grayzone.
Iran's Unique Twitter Relationship
While numerous government officials in Iran rely on Twitter as a broadcast tool – including the nation's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was active on the social media platform last week after Iran fired missiles at U.S. military bases in Iraq – the Middle Eastern nation has had a tight control on social media. During the 2009 Iranian presidential election the government blocked Twitter.
In September 2013 the Internet blocks on Twitter and Facebook were temporarily lifted, but it was due to a technical error and both services have been largely blocked. Social media sites are among the 50% or so of the top 500 visited websites that Tehran does its utmost to censor. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Sepah, under orders from the government, is charged with blocking nearly all social media.
However, many Iranians simply get around the blocks to access the "forbidden" sites via proxy servers, but the Iran government has continued to fight back with various practices including speed throttling to limit communications.
How effective this will be has yet to be seen, as just this week Iranians have been taking to social media in increasing numbers after Tehran finally admitted it was responsible for shooting down a Ukraine-bound commercial plane. All 176 people on board, most of whom were Ukrainian, Canadian or Iranian, were killed.
Social media posts on Wednesday reportedly read, "We're coming to the streets." These online protests come only weeks after Iran had disrupted mobile Internet access following one of the bloodiest crackdowns on demonstrators in the 40-years since the founding of the Islamic Republic.
The power of social media can't be understated – it was an instrumental tool for communication during 2011's "Arab Spring," notably in Egypt and Tunisia. Social media even has far more reach now nearly nine years later.
"It's often said that the only inevitabilities are death and taxes – let's add social media to this," said James R. Bailey, professor of leadership at the George Washington University School of Business.
"There is no firewall that can prevent it," Bailey added. "Some apps are easier than other to detect and disable. But developers are hip to this, and are making it more difficult to selectively eliminate them. WhatsApp is a good example."
Social media is much harder to silence or censor today.
"Regimes like Iran and China are finding that their finger is nowhere near large enough to plug the hole in the dike," said Bailey. "Electronic signals, like water, will find away around. Does anyone remember the Arab spring? The revolutionary potential of social media hasn't been fully unlocked yet, but it's not far off. Iran's young and restless population might well be the first full test."
