Tech giants at Washington’s foreign policy service

American social media companies seem to have lost any perceived independence and neutrality and become assistants of the US diplomatic service, playing a role even stronger than a state mouthpiece or public diplomacy tool at the hand of the US State Department. There is a process for American technology giants to become political tools of the US government. Some new changes and reasons have caused these companies to stop resisting government pressure.

The following is an article in this regard by staff writers of Iran’s English language website of Fars news agency under the heading “Tech giants at Washington’s foreign policy service.”

No doubt technology giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Microsoft are at the service of the US government for foreign policy goals and purposes.

As their products and services penetrate every aspect of global community, the control of these technology giants is also increasing. The US government controls the direction of public opinion by controlling channels and balance, and the voices of a handful of countries which are not on the same page with Washington may be concealed and blocked systematically.

There are many reasons to block users in these countries. Some are because of racial discrimination, some because of the so-called spread of extreme ideas, and the most widely used reason is fake news and anti-Israel, anti-war sentiments. The above criteria are determined by these technology giants, lacking transparent procedures and fair channels of appeal.

Not long after blocking the accounts of thousands of Iranian citizens, officials and official media for alleged propaganda against the US government and Zionist regime of Israel, Facebook and Twitter recently suspended the accounts of Cuba's state-run media outlets, a move seen by Havana as "massive censorship".

American social media companies seem to have lost any perceived independence and neutrality and become assistants of the US diplomatic service, playing a role even stronger than a state mouthpiece or public diplomacy tool at the hand of the US State Department. There is a process for American technology giants to become political tools of the US government. Some new changes and reasons have caused these companies to stop resisting government pressure.

First, technology companies have a more pressing need for the US government in terms of legislation and regulation. In recent years, the international community has attached importance to legislation and regulation in the digital economy and has gradually enhanced the protection of personal data. These new legislative measures affect the ecological development of technology companies and force them to bear higher compliance costs.

US technology companies have increased their lobbying efforts to persuade the government and Congress not to block the expansion of these companies through an overly strict legal system. The government and the Congress have put national security as a transaction consideration, requiring these companies to abandon neutrality and serve Washington's foreign policy strategy. This exchange has prompted technology companies to cater to government demands and even conduct self-censorship.

Second, Russia's alleged intervention in US elections has intensified Westerners' negative perception of fake news and false accounts. For political reasons, the US Congress and the intelligence community have been hyping the role that social media played in the 2016 elections, accusing fake news of affecting the outcome of the elections.

Affected by this propaganda, people believe that social media should take responsibility for eliminating false news, which, as they believe, may eventually interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. In this case, if social media platforms disregard the users' request to shut down the suspected accounts, then the users or the countries may protest.

In the prevailing environment and in response to global concerns, don’t expect the US government to take any measure against the technology giants anytime soon. The US Congress antitrust investigations against the technology giants including Google and Facebook will go nowhere as the move is only aimed at keeping the social media outlets in line with the US political orientations and strategies to use them as an effective weapon in soft war.

Quite the opposite, the US government will continue to strengthen its control on these technology companies. After 2001, cooperation between Microsoft and the US administration increased significantly and Microsoft became an important supplier to the US forces in West Asia.

Google and Facebook have also followed suit in recent years. Turning off the social media accounts of many Iranian and Russian users that the US administration does not like is the first gift these companies are giving to the war party in Washington.

Moreover, the United States continues to boast itself as a bastion of freedom and democracy. But with an increasing number of journalists targeted, humiliated and even attacked for publishing materials detrimental to US President Donald Trump, "press freedom" turned out to be an empty slogan in the world's so-called most "democratic" country.

In its recent article, The New York Times elaborated the Trump administration's long-running efforts in diminishing the credibility of news organizations deemed hostile to the White House. The pro-Trump team, in retaliation for reports harmful for the president's re-election campaign, conducted laborious research into the public records of the journalists for embarrassing statements and publicized them in a misleading way.

The NYT reported: “Worse still, the pro-Trump network targets not only journalists challenging the administration, but also "anyone who works for any news organization that members of the network see as hostile to Trump, no matter how tangential that job may be to the coverage of his presidency." A handful of journalists have been humiliated, abused and some of them even lost their jobs thanks to Trump's campaign against the free press.

As the fourth estate, the media is supposed to expose the wrongdoings of those in power. Journalists have the obligation to check the country's legislative, executive and judicial bodies.  It is a shame that the United States, on the one hand, shouts to the world that it is the most "democratic" country, but, on the other, silences journalists and social media from criticizing the government.

"Problematic" is how Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) labelled US press freedom status this year. According to the US Press Freedom Tracker, in 2019 alone, 10 journalists have been physically attacked in the country so far. RSF Interim Executive Director Sabine Dolan said "The president's relentless attacks against the press have created an environment where verbal, physical and online threats and assaults against journalists are being normalized."

Even more ironically, the US, for decades, has been using "freedom" and "democracy" as an excuse to intervene into other countries' internal affairs. The White House's involvement in the Hong Kong’s political tensions and the Ukrainian crisis is an open secret. Holding high the banner of "freedom," the United States has tried to drag all these regions into an abyss of misery, misusing "freedom" to cover up its interventionist goals.

It is worth noting that in the case of Hong Kong protests, posts backing local police were intentionally deleted on Facebook, Twitter and other Western social media platforms, while rumours about police bullying protesters went viral. Some of the accounts have even been blocked for publicly supporting the Hong Kong police.

It is laid bare that "freedom of speech" is non-existent in the United States. It is merely a convenient tool by American politicians in pursuit of political aims. Zipping journalists' mouth, the White House asserts that "freedom" and "democracy" are its ultimate goals in intervening in other countries' affairs. This is a bold lie. Toppling regimes that it does not like under the guise of freedom is what American politicians are pursuing.

America’s double-standard is nothing new. In Washington's logic, anything that conforms to its political interests will be safeguarded under the principle of freedom; anything that does not will be ruthlessly silenced and even attacked. The US has used the same old tactic in West Asia, Ukraine, and Hong Kong. This time, it is deployed again on domestic journalists hostile to the Trump administration.

Instead of targeting other countries, the United States should reflect more on itself before pointing a finger at other countries. Credibility, not silencing criticizing voices, is the trump card to win support. This is what the Trump administration should bear in mind in the re-election campaign.

ME/MG