eeping with its Crackdown on Alternative Voices, Google Deletes Press TV
from YouTube
Press TV says the move is "part of an anti-Iran purge as the West sets its
sights on regime change in Iran."
by Alan Macleod
January 15th, 2020
By Alan Macleod @AlanRMacLeod
Without warning, tech giant Google "permanently removed" Iranian
government-owned media channel Press TV UK's YouTube channel Monday night
amid increasing American hostility to Iran.
"This attack on the freedom of speech of Press TV's journalists seems to be
part of an anti-Iran purge as the West sets its sights on regime change in
Iran," Press TV said. Its content, in its own words, focuses on
"anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and covers aspects of the news which the
mainstream corporate media in the United Kingdom have refused to air."
The London-based outlet had over 28,000 subscribers on its YouTube account
at the time of its deletion.
British-Sudanese journalist Ahmed Kaballo accused Google of acting like the
"judge jury and executioner" for his employer's channel, expressing his
great disappointment that his journalistic output is now gone and his worry
at "what this really represents" for alternative media that "show a
different perspective and holds a critical lens" on war and empire.
MintPress News reached out to Kaballo for comment. "The actions of Google in
the last 24 hours has made me lose hope in the idea of free press and free
speech," he said. "Journalism is about pushing the boundaries and being
fearless in our reporting but in this climate where they can do this to us
in this fashion, it's clear that our perspective. which is overtly
anti-imperialist, is, in the eyes of Google, simply not allowed."
"
We're told that freedom of speech + press underpins western values
If so, explain the censorship of @Presstvuk's YouTube acc in London?
We have no idea what we did wrong + we've no right of appeal
Whether u agree with what we say or not - I urge u to defend our right to
say it pic.twitter.com/yfLgjXEgH0
- Ahmed Kaballo (@AhmedKaballo) January 14, 2020
After online pushback, by Wednesday morning UK time, Google had reversed its
decision. However, just as Press TV was celebrating its reinstatement, it
was again taken off the air. YouTube sent a message to Press TV UK claiming
that they had received a complaint about the channel and decided that it
violates their terms of service. Kaballo described the political hokey pokey
his organization was under as "psychological warfare."
"
BREAKING: Google have just shutdown the Press TV UK YouTube account again
less than 18 hours after reinstating our account.
This is psychological warfare they want to demoralise us and this stage it's
clear they are playing with us! pic.twitter.com/KWhjuvmEQc
- Ahmed Kaballo (@AhmedKaballo) January 15, 2020
Press TV says the move is "part of an anti-Iran purge as the West sets its
sights on regime change in Iran." It comes in the context of the Trump
administration's assassination of Lt. General Qassem Soleimani January 3,
while he was in Iraq attending peace talks. In response, Iran launched
dozens of ballistic missiles at U.S.-occupied military bases in Iraq,
although it was careful to warn the U.S. of the attack beforehand. As a
result, there were no deaths. The Iraqi parliament also immediately voted to
expel all American troops from the country. However, the U.S. refused to
leave.
While the threat of a hot war with the Iran appears to have subsided, an
intense, online propaganda war rages between the two countries. During his
funeral, the hashtag #IraniansDetestSoleimani trended across American
Twitter. But analysis showed that it was not Iranians, but organized Trump
supporters who were boosting the message, supporting, as 47 percent of
Americans did, their president's decision to kill him.
Last Friday, Facebook announced that it felt compelled to delete all
positive posts about the deceased general from its platform and its
subsidiary Instagram. "We operate under U.S. sanctions laws, including those
related to the U.S. government's designation of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) and its leadership," it said, explaining that Trump's new
sanctions made supporting Iran online on any American website essentially
illegal. Instagram had already closed Soleimani's account in April last
year, following Trump's designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group. Just
after Facebook's decision, Twitter suspended Ayatollah Khamenei's account
for "unusual activity." Instagram is extremely popular in Iran, with around
one in three people owning an account, almost as popular as Soleimani, who
over 80 percent view positively or very positively. Thus, the U.S.
government has, through pressuring monopolistic Silicon Valley giants,
effectively banned a majority opinion being shared by Iranians to Iranians,
in Iran.
"
BREAKING: #PressTVUK YouTube account taken down for a second time - without
explanation - after a first appeal showed no violations committed.
So is it a violation of YT's terms to be an anti-war, anti-racism and an
anti-imperialism outlet?#PressTVCensored #FreedomOfThePress
pic.twitter.com/bCex5uOu4e
- Press TV UK (@Presstvuk) January 15, 2020
This is not the first occasion that the U.S. government has used the
American monopoly over the means of communication online to shut down
alternative voices from other countries. Facebook has previously
de-platformed Venezuela-based outlets TeleSUR English and Venezuelanalysis,
both of which offered differing opinions and analysis of the U.S.
government's actions in Venezuela and Latin America. Meanwhile, the Trump
administration has forced RT journalists to register as "foreign agents,"
under a rule originally set up to deal with Nazis during World War Two.
Press TV, too, has had a history of poor treatment at the hands of the U.S.
state. In January last year, the FBI illegally detained Press TV anchor
Marzieh Hashemi for ten days. She was never charged and was deprived of
Halal food and a hijab during her detention. While the network is still
reachable directly on its website, the fact that the U.S. government can
unilaterally decide what the world sees, hears or reads, zapping British
based Iranian networks from universal social media giants the entire world
uses raises questions about freedom of information in the digital age.
