Colonization of Instagram platform this time against the late “Nader Talebzadeh”

According to Fars News Agency, Nader Talebzadeh passed away on May 29, due to a fatal heart failure. Talebzadeh is known as a full-fledged revolutionary man and commander of the cultural front of the Islamic Revolution. He has been documenting for many years and in addition to directing, he has held various festivals in the field of cinema. One of the most important film-making festivals that he has been the secretary of during these years is the “Ammar” film festival.

After the death of this cultured artist, his supporters and lovers on Instagram reacted to his death in the last two days and referred to his moral qualities and years of struggle in the cultural and revolutionary arena in several messages, but the social network Instagram once again A deliberate action deleted some of the posts of users with the hashtag Nader Talebzadeh, which was accompanied by protests and reactions from users against freedom of expression.

During his cultural career, Nader Talebzadeh tried to raise the voice of the global front of the oppressed to the people of the world and carried out activities in the fight against global asceticism, which put him on the US sanctions list. This is the reason for Instagram and deleting and blocking posts related to him.

One of the users wrote in this regard; Instagram deleted 5,000 posts with the hashtag Nader Talebzadeh! Continuing its anti-Iranian policies, the Instagram application made users’ posts with the hashtag Nader Talebzadeh unavailable! Democracy and freedom of expression really awaken in Western culture, of course in line with their own political goal!

Another user said; Once again, the cyberspace and the display of the American media dictatorship on Instagram, the removal of posts related to Nader Talebzadeh, once again showed that the Americans and their domestic allies are seeking a boycott, censorship and repression of freedom of expression in their favor in Iran. Put an end to this platform colonization and humiliation of the country.

Instagram has taken action to delete the accounts and posts of Iranian users in cyberspace before and in recent years, so that last year this social network prevented the publication of posts related to the martyrdom of Sardar Hejazi, the deputy commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC. Self-contracted.

Earlier, in December 1999, the American social network deleted the posts of Iranian users related to condemning the assassination of the nuclear scientist Shahid Fakhrizadeh.

In another action, this social network, simultaneously with the martyrdom of Sardar Soleimani in 1998, deleted any post related to Sardar Soleimani, and even on the first and second anniversary of this dear Sardar, continued the scenario of removing Soleimani on social networks. Also, the information base for preserving and publishing the works of General Qassem Soleimani has been closed several times by Instagram.

At that time, users protested against this by publishing hashtags such as “#Hero” (Hero), “#Soldier” and “#Father” and also by sharing photos of the Instagram deletion action with content published about Sardar Soleimani. They announced how to deal.

It was in 1999 that on the first anniversary of the assassination of Martyr Haj Qassem Soleimani, cyberspace users joined the “They Are Afraid of Your Photo” campaign on Instagram to express their dissatisfaction with the immorality of Instagram, which claims to be free. They expressed, but again, this action was met with a hostile reaction from Instagram, and the popular pages that were present in this campaign were blocked and deleted!

This evidence shows that foreign social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, despite claiming to be freedom of expression, are doing their best to prevent Iranian users from expressing their freedom by removing users’ content.

Since 1998, following the deletion of posts and accounts of Iranian users in connection with the martyrdom of Sardar Soleimani, the issue of serious confrontation with the Instagram platform has been demanded by many cyberspace experts and activists, and the Ministry of Communications is biased in countering these unilateral actions. And made promises against freedom of expression.

At the time, Minister of Communications Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi called the US action in censoring Sardar Soleimani on Instagram a disgrace to that country and said, “We will definitely stand against US censorship on Instagram.” This speech of the then Minister of Communications, of course, remained only as promised.

On December 4, 1400, the Ministry of Communications in a letter to the managers of Meta and Instagram platforms condemned the censorship of content and images related to Martyr Soleimani on Instagram, calling for an end to this censorship.

“The deletion and censorship of images and content related to Sardar Shahid Qassem Soleimani, the hero of the fight against terrorism and the destroyer of the criminal ISIS, is not in line with any of the international standards,” the letter said in part. This point was also emphasized; “Instagram executives are expected to end this widespread censorship as soon as possible, in honor of the millions of users interested in this anti-terrorism hero.”

At the end of the letter, which was prepared by the legal department of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the managers of the Meta and Instagram platforms were asked; “Provide adequate explanations and logic for this non-constructive policy, recover all deleted or suspended accounts and deleted posts, and ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.”

In another move, however, the head of the Digital Economy Committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly wrote a letter to the UN Internet Governing Council protesting Instagram’s illegal practice of deleting images of Martyr Soleimani and suspending Iranian users; It was stated in part of this letter; “Using and imposing a particular approach based on censorship and deletion on Iranian users, using excuses such as ‘corporate law’ and ‘US sanctions’ and imposing sanctions on access to some users, explicitly lays down the principle of network neutrality that lays the foundation for “It is questioning the Internet and threatening Iran’s national digital governance to ensure that basic requirements for users’ freedom of expression on international platforms are met.”

Dealing with the successive actions of this American platform so far has been only a matter of letters and promises, while ending unilateral censorship and such discrimination requires more serious action, and the violation of the rights of Iranian users requires new policy and governance in the space. It is virtual.

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