Facebook ‘thought police’ censors pro-Iran posts ‘to comply with US sanctions’… as Trump warns Tehran against censorship

Facebook has admitted to selectively censoring pro-Iranian government Instagram posts about the murdered General Soleimani, as US President Donald Trump hypocritically championed free speech and warned Tehran against censorship.

Instagram has confirmed that they have been removing posts that voice support for Qassem Soleimani, with a Facebook spokesperson claiming that censorship is fully justified in order to comply with US sanctions. Instagram is one of the few social media platforms that is not blocked in Iran, and it is where many within the country went to fuel outrage over the US assassination strike in Iraq last week.

The International Federation of Journalists condemned the censorship effort as “unprecedented in the history of social networks and in conflict with the very innate actuality of media.” In its letter to Instagram, AoIJ Tehran noted that numerous Iranian state media accounts had been removed and 15 journalists had been censored recently, which goes against and freedom of speech principles.

“These massive Big Tech corporations are Thought Police for the US government: Facebook and Instagram are removing posts expressing support for Iran's top general Soleimani,” journalist Ben Norton tweeted. “They say it's to comply with US sanctions, but how do posts violate sanctions?”

The US government designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization last year, in an unprecedented move against a sovereign nation’s military. The IRGC’s elite Quds Force, led by Soleimani, was among those forces that turned the tide against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists in Syria. But technically, since Washington considers him a terrorist, Facebook has a convenient excuse to censor any posts critical of the US extrajudicial assassination strike.

While Facebook was acting as ‘thought police’ on behalf of the US government, Washington has been championing free speech and warning Tehran against restricting the Iranian people’s internet access. US President Donald Trump personally addressed the anti-government protesters – in Farsi, mind you – reassuring them of his unwavering support.

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