NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) continued its Social Media Campaign, by contacting Google, Inc. regarding the YouTube and Google Plus accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian regime uses the accounts (https://www.youtube.com/user/khameneiir and https://plus.google.com/100979543863804030648/) for propaganda, while banning its own citizens from accessing these Google platforms.
In the aftermath of the disputed 2009 presidential elections, the regime severely punished citizens that utilized sites such as YouTube to mobilize protest and opposition activities, as well as disseminate footage of demonstrations and the regime’s human rights abuses.
As part of its Social Media Campaign, UANI has also been calling on Facebook and Twitter to suspend Khamenei’s accounts. Like with YouTube and Google Plus, the regime uses Facebook and Twitter to spread propaganda and post offensive messages, yet blocks Iranian citizens’ access to the sites and has unjustly imprisoned, tortured, and killed Iranians for using them.
In a letter to Google CEO Larry Page, UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote:
… If you recall, following the disputed June 2009 presidential elections in Iran, YouTube was an instrumental tool in organizing protests and exposing the Iranian regime’s violent crackdown to the world. YouTube also played an invaluable role in the “viral” spread of the iconic video of the death of protester Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot to death by a member of Iran’s Basij militia. This tragic video brought a symbolic face to the protest movement and raised global awareness on the Iranian regime’s wanton abuses taking place on the streets of Iran.
As part of the post-election crackdown, Iranian authorities blocked access to YouTube and prosecuted a number of protesters for their activities on the site. In addition to blocking YouTube, the Iranian regime has regularly disrupted access to Gmail, Blogger and Google Plus. By drastically slowing the connection to these popular sites, the regime has attempted to drive users away from these platforms and towards alternative sites hosted in Iran that can be more easily monitored.
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At the same time, Ayatollah Khamenei and other regime officials actively use YouTube and Google Plus to promote their own crude propaganda. Ayatollah Khamenei uses YouTube to broadcast offensive rhetoric and Google Plus to publish photos and excerpts of his inflammatory speeches. Such content includes an anti-American, anti-Israel YouTube video featuring anti-Semitic imagery in which Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah, and Ayatollah Khamenei advocate for a “new Middle East” of radical theocracies.
Furthermore, many of the loyalist candidates hand-picked to run for the upcoming presidential elections in Iran are also active on these platforms. For example, chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf maintain Google Plus accounts. These accounts are used to publish inflammatory and offensive material. On May 24, 2013, for instance, Ghalibaf posted an image of the Israeli flag set aflame with the word “expired” superimposed on it, and accompanied by a diatribe against the “Zionist regime.”
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Today, it is a sad irony that Ayatollah Khamenei and other senior regime officials actively use Google’s platforms to promote the regime’s radical agenda to the world, while concurrently denying their people the ability to access the social media tools that were so vital during the 2009 election protests. Given that Google’s products and services remain illegal and inaccessible to Iranian citizens while at the same time serving as a tool for the regime to spread its own propaganda, Google should set a moral precedent and suspend Ayatollah Khamenei’s account. Google must send the Iranian regime a message that it will no longer allow it to censor the digital freedom of the Iranian people with impunity.
UANI has requested a response by June 13, 2013.
Click here
to read UANI’s full letter to Google.
Click here
to send a message to Google.
Click here
to visit UANI's Iranian Regime Election Repression Toolkit.