Facebook when it forgets that we are users and not citizens

A few days ago, we had serious problem with Facebook. The largest social network decided to "seal" our page and the group of the site. All the posts went for a walk, and it was not possible to make new ones from the iguru.gr domain.

The largest social network, without any warning, decided to silence iGuRu and of course it succeeded, easily.
The reason; We honestly do not know yet. We did not publish fake news, we did not publish any videos about the recruitment of terrorists, nor did we promote any financial fraud. This post does not look for the reasons why our page was downloaded. Maybe it was just a wrong click. It's more to see the global impact of the Facebook phenomenon.

We live in an age where terabytes of data are bombarding us and content is unfortunately censored.

Facebook can download whatever it wants because it may have been requested by some government. Other times the posts disappear due to an overly cautious attitude of a puritan mod. Of course all social networks prefer to be safe from any government intervention and apparently this is better than apologizing. However, when pages "fall" they should explain the reason. Facebook does not have an open customer support hotline, and of course it does not have a law firm online.

The above concerns were heightened when I read about the removal of some Iran accounts on Instagram. Several pages in support of Iranian General Qassem Soleiman, who was assassinated by the United States last week, were dropped over the weekend.

The Facebook explanation? Sanctions. Donnie O'Sullivan and Artemis Moshtaghian they mention on CNN:

As part of our compliance with US law, a Facebook spokesman said the company removes accounts running from or on behalf of individuals and entities sanctioned by the US.

It also removes posts that applaud the actions of individuals and individuals sanctioned by the U.S., the social network spokesman said, adding that Facebook has a lawsuit if users believe their posts have been removed by mistake.

The above applies. There is an appeal form from which you can send a message, but you will not receive a response…

GoFundMe had to delete at least two fundraising campaigns for the victims of the Ukrainian flight that was shot down by Iranian missiles, in order to bring them back a little later, Reported Colin Lecher in The Verge.

What will happen; Lawyers disagree about the extent to which large technology companies are involved in US sanctions. The deletion of the publications on the issue of Iran gives us a very clear message. The US government can be considered a world government and of course their censorship and propaganda is applied worldwide.

The events in Iran may have reminded us of FB's stance, but this is not the first time we have experienced such a thing from technology companies. Last year, GitHub restricted users to several countries for US sanctions.

In 2018, Slack shut down accounts around the world that were linked to Iran, in a move that went far beyond the US border. Apple downloaded several popular Iranian applications from its store in 2017, again due to US sanctions, stating: "This area of ​​law is complex and constantly changing."

But the reality is different: Facebook, Instagram and social networks in general have users and not citizens. We may have more freedom of speech than they have in Iran, but we realize that social networks operate as states trying to shape political speech.