Twitter has suspended the account of the Spanish-language Hispan TV, which is a news channel operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
The Hispan TV account has not been working since September 30. Its blockage raises the possibility that it has been added to the black list of the American online micro-blogging and social networking service.
Hispan TV seeking to know why it was blocked sent an email to Twitter's official account, but the email was not replied to.
Twitter has already suspended the Persian-language accounts of some Iranian news agencies as well as accounts of Press TV, the English-language channel based in Tehran.
“I don't see any good that comes out of it. My guess is they're doing it under pressure from the US government because Iran is seen as an adversary of the United States. They are toeing the line of the US State Department in blocking some of their news services, which is quite ironic because,” said Daniel Kovalik, who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
“I remember in the day during the first Cold War, if the Soviet Union or Cuba or other countries blocked, for example, Voice of America or Radio Martí, the US would cry foul and say this was a form of censorship. But now, the shoe on the other foot with the US blocking foreign news services, like Iranian news services, and also some Russian outlets. It's quite concerning and to me what it shows is that the US is losing the battle of ideas,” he told Press TV on Tuesday.
“The US used to feel confident that its system of government and economy spoke for themselves and if there was a free flow of ideas, the US would win the hearts and minds of the world. And now they don't believe that anymore because history is showing that the US system is failing. It's failing its own people in terms of the pandemic, in terms of the economy,” he said.
“And I think the US realizes that it's now losing the support of the world and so now it's turning to censoring other voices,” he noted.
American social media giants often target Iranian media outlets.
Last month, Google targeted Press TV, blocking access to its official YouTube account of the international news network, citing "violations of export laws."
The move came almost a year after the US tech giant shut down YouTube and Gmail accounts of both Press TV and Hispan TV without any prior notice.
Over the past years, Google has recurrently been opting for such measures against Iranian media outlets. It has taken on Press TV more than any other Iranian outlet given the expanse of its viewership and readership.
Press TV was targeted in April last year, when Google similarly shut its YouTube and Gmail accounts.
The previous attack also denied the networks any advance notification, sufficing to cite a nebulous “violation of policies.”
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