16 Where are the rights of social media users?

Fars News Agency Legal and Judicial Department – Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Ghamami, head of the Human Rights and Citizenship Institute at Imam Sadegh (AS) University, in a note provided to Fars News Agency, examined the rights of users in social networks:

970 million social network users In 2010, the number of users of these social networks reached 4.48 billion, or 56.8% of the world’s population. Of these, 93.33% are active users; That is, they produce and analyze.

People are so involved with these media that each person is an average user of 6.6 platforms (the most Japanese with 11.5 and the least Indians with 3.8 accounts per person). The growth rate of the trend towards these social networks in Asia is equal to 16.98 most of all, and Iran is ranked fifth in the world in 2021 with an increase of 9.6 million people.

In such a situation, where any individual and of course any society can be the target of business and abuse, national and regional legal systems (such as the European Union) have identified rights for users, including immunity, privileges and freedoms. The subject of this article is to examine and explain these rights in relation to platforms (publishing platforms) taking into account the realities of digital space. In fact, a free world does not provide platforms for many people except for the restrictions imposed by the dictatorship and the squandering of their rights, because those who have more access to resources and facilities and rents leave no room for the uninhabited, either in physical or cyberspace.

Considering the rapid growth of virtual networks, and because the majority of citizens are not literate in virtual media and simply trust and deal honestly with this space, their individual and collective rights are being widely violated. Because cyberspace has thousands of layers of business, the first of which is the collection of user information in the form of artificial intelligence to obtain taste and targeted advertising, and the latest may be the extortion of users even unconsciously and trolling.

However, cyberspace users have shared their privacy, family, office and business with social networks due to their smartphones, and in a sense, they have become “unrestricted access”, but social networks have a policy of privacy and guarantee of rights. Users do not follow. In addition, networks and software, by obtaining a mandatory license from the user, put him in a dilemma between giving access to information and user access to the software, and with the paradox of privacy, instill in the user that at the expense – benefit of information Insignificant or insignificant information may be disclosed to him, but in practice, the user has high access to the benefits of the network or software. This is the “privacy trap”. Here, too, social networks are trading for maximum freedom, and seemingly free users are falling victim.

Therefore, the establishment of the principle of freedom is more for business. That is why governments have taken action to protect their citizens and national security by identifying and regulating government or forcing them to self-regulate or regulate, as in 2022 the French National Commission for Informatics and Freedom (CNIL) set Google Alphabet at € 150 million. And fined Facebook Meta 60 million euros. This is because both companies have made it difficult for users to decline online cookies. Violations of users’ rights have resulted in numerous lawsuits in European countries as well as the European Court of Human Rights against many platforms, including four American platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google) for imposing heavy fines of several hundred million dollars / euros. .

Therefore, the legislative and judicial system must be introduced according to the requirements of social networks, otherwise public rights and individual freedoms will be violated and violated.

In this regard, the Iranian legislature has not always acted as it should, either in the enactment of the Computer Crimes Law (2009) or now that the “draft law on the protection of users’ rights in cyberspace” without full and balanced identification of rights and observance of legislative principles (paragraph 9 general policies of the legislative system). He must protect the rights of users by using effective guarantees and creating a protective perception, not a limitation one, and in order to protect the rights of the user, he must instruct the social network to recognize and respect the following rights:

1. Honesty: The social network must be very transparent about its privacy policy and terms of service and honestly respect it.

۲. Clarity: The social network must be reliably assured that policies, terms of service, and settings are easily found and understood by the user.

3. Freedom of expression: Do not delete or modify user data without a clear, logical, legal, and step-by-step policy. Therefore, the government and all social networks are obliged to follow the “principle of limited and transparent jurisdiction” in order to protect freedom of expression.

4. Empowerment: The social network should support assistive technologies and global access.

5. Self-protection: Social networking should support privacy enhancement technologies.

6. Minimize data: Minimize the information that the user should provide and share.

7. Control: The social network allows the user to control his data and does not facilitate its sharing unless he first expressly agrees.

8. Predictability: Prior to significant change, people who can see the user receive their prior consent.

9. Data portability: The social network makes it easy for the user to get a copy of the data.

10. Protection: The user’s data should be treated as much as the confidential data of the social network and even more secure, unless the user knowingly and intentionally intends to disclose. In addition, the user should be notified if the data is compromised.

۱۱. Right to know: Show the user how their data is used and allow them to see clearly who and what has access to that data. This is the right to virtual network literacy.

12. Definition: Allows the user to create more than one identity and use a traceable and responsive alias.

14. Effective and fair appeal: Allows the user to object to the social network’s punitive action and receives a written and specific response within a limited period of time. In addition to placing him under judicial supervision. This right has been severely violated by Section 230 of the American Code of Conduct (1996).

14. Right to withdraw: Allows the user to delete his account or delete certain data.

۱۵. The right to modify, deactivate or reject a cookie: A cookie is a file that is stored on a computer or mobile phone or tablet and stores information for the server to facilitate access and operations on the system without the user’s permission; Therefore, the user must have access and the amount of access. This right is described in the Cookies Policy.

۱۶. Children’s rights: Children should have the right to protection, clean access and immediate deletion of data.

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