Google blocks 39 channels related to Iran's broadcasting service on YouTube
Google announced on Thursday that it had identified and blocked 39 channels related to Iranian state radio and television on YouTube.
According to Reuters, Google also blocked six blogs on Blogger and 13 other accounts on Google Plus.
According to Google, they were sharing political content in the United States, but they hid their identity and connection to the Iranian Broadcasting Organization.
Politico also wrote in a report on the same subject, stating that this news was announced by Google's Vice President of Global Affairs, Kenneth Walker.
This is while Facebook and Twitter, two major social networks, also recently announced that they had blocked hundreds of pages and accounts related to Iran.
The action of these two pervasive social networks is a continuation of these companies' efforts to make fundamental reforms in cybersecurity.
Facebook said in a statement Tuesday night that it had removed 652 pages that were targeted at people in the Middle East, Latin America, the United Kingdom and the United States. Facebook said the reason for the action was “untrustworthy coordinated behavior.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Thursday that the network's connection to Iranian state media can be confirmed.
Some sites active in the field of cybersecurity point to Facebook pages that are engaged in propaganda activities against Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has filtered both Facebook and Twitter, but in addition to official figures, activist groups affiliated with the Iranian regime have an active presence on these social networks.
Facebook says the Islamic Republic of Iran has been creating some of these “fake” pages since 2011, with Iranian state media and Iranian armed forces intelligence playing a role in their creation. One of these pages is called “Liberty Front Press,” which was created by Press TV, the Islamic Republic’s English-language broadcaster that broadcasts its news outside Iran.
At the same time as Facebook's action, Twitter also announced that it had closed about 300 accounts that the company said were coordinating disinformation activities.
The official Twitter security account clearly named Iran as the link to these accounts:
Working with our industry peers today, we have suspended 284 accounts from Twitter for engaging in coordinated manipulation. Based on our existing analysis, it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 22, 2018
Since the US presidential election and Facebook's role in guiding voters, the company has announced plans to make fundamental reforms to prevent interference in elections and political activities.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday it was important for Facebook to develop its own tools to combat questionable content while also reaching out to law enforcement, governments and other countries to share information.
Iran, along with Russia and China, is considered one of the cyber threats to the United States.
Source: Voice of America
