Notice of the Ministry of Communications regarding the restriction of Iranian programs by Google
According to Aetna from Isna, the text of this announcement is as follows: In recent days, we have seen a new wave of unusual restrictions on American platforms in the face of social events and programs native to dear Iran. Removal of content and hashtags related to the oppressed martyrs of the terrorist incident of the Holy Shrine of Shah Cheragh (AS) on American platforms and specifically removing content related to the oppressed children, Artin and Arsham, and on the other hand, allowing the publication and even promotion of provocative videos containing obvious violence. , has revealed a new level of double standard of these platforms in the interpretation of freedom of expression and human rights.
Also, the Google Play platform belonging to the Google company, using its exclusive position in Android phones and without prior notice in an unusual action, has started the process of limiting some of the most used Iranian programs and platforms under the pretext of protecting the privacy of users. This irresponsible action regarding popular Iranian programs, which are mainly the result of the efforts of the elite youth of this border and region and have been welcomed by millions of users, has been done while, according to the investigations of this ministry, the above programs had not received any prior warning from Google and despite They immediately protested against this irresponsible behavior, but they have not received any response from Google. It is necessary to explain that the mentioned measures are not limited to one or two news-making programs and have been applied to several other Iranian applications in the past two weeks.
According to the information of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, despite the political background of the unilateral actions of American companies and also the emphasis of the developers of these platforms on compliance with professional principles according to international standards, the suspicion that this action of Google is political is very strong, but due to the importance of the issue and maximum protection of The rights of Iranian users against any negligence or possible fault, the Minister of Communications has ordered that in case of receipt of documents claimed by Google regarding Iranian platforms, a committee consisting of expert and independent technical experts will be formed to investigate these claims in detail and the results of the investigations will be made known to the public and in particular relevant institutions, including the National Center for Cyberspace.
According to its legal duties and mission in supporting the country’s information technology ecosystem, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology stands fully behind Iranian platforms and companies that develop services in the field of digital economy, and will not allow anti-Iranian decisions and standards. The two American companies will marginalize the efforts of the youth of this region to meet the technological needs of the people, and will use all their technical and legal capacities to protect the rights of Iranian users.