If ever there was reason to take what is packaged as news on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter from sources of dubious origin with a liberal dose of salt, then the actions of these social media platforms in suspending a series of accounts linked to Iran and Russia serves as a timely and merited warning. Acting on a tip from cybersecurity firm FireEye, the social media companies have suspended accounts that were purposely being used to disseminate propaganda, manipulate events, distort facts and factualise alternative untruths.
Twitter has said it has suspended 284 accounts that have been traced back to the regime in Tehran, while Facebook has linked more than 600 accounts back to the workings of Iran’s media machine. For its part, Instagram has traced some 76 accounts back to Iranian regime’s state media operations. Clearly, the extent and nature of these diverse accounts indicate that this was not a one-off matter. Instead, the scale, spread and intertwined complexity of these accounts clearly demonstrate that this was a deliberate and calculated attempt to use social media to distort facts and promote the sectarian agenda of the Iranian machine.
For those who cherish social media as platforms of equality that promote freedom of expression, this was a blatant attempt from Tehran to subvert that very principle, using the right to speak freely as a tool to manipulate opinions and spread false, inaccurate and misleading information from the regime.
Those of us who live around the Arabian Gulf are all too aware of the malicious and insidious nature of the regime in Tehran. Now, by taking action, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have awakened to those dangers. It’s time everyone else did as well.
