This illustration picture shows social media applications logos from Linkedin, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter displayed on a smartphone in Arlington, Virginia on May 28, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Facebook says it has started to label Iran’s Press TV, Russia’s Sputnik, and China’s Xinhua News Agency as state-media, adding it will later block them from running advertisements in the United States.

The social media giant said it will initially apply the label to about 200 pages belonging to these outlets.

The labels, Facebook said, will immediately start appearing on pages globally, as well as on news-feed posts within the United States.

The decision to label these media outlets came after they published articles and videos of widespread US protests against police violence and systemic racism in the country following the shocking death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man at the hands of a white officer in Minneapolis.

It also comes ahead of the November presidential election in the US.

Facebook is already under fire for refusing to label US President Donald Trump’s recent posts which many people argue are fomenting violence against protesters who had taken to the streets in anger at the death of George Floyd.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has repeatedly defended himself by claiming that it was not the responsibility of his company to police political speech.

It seems that Facebook has labeled the Iranian, Chinese and Russian media outlets under pressure from the US government which has made sanctions a weapon of choice.

While banning the Iranian, Chinese and Russian networks for being state-media, the company has said it will not label any US government-run outlets because they allegedly had editorial independence.

China on Friday slammed Facebook for its decision to apply labels to Xinhua, saying social media firms should not selectively choose media agencies and block them.

Any media agency operating in line with relevant laws of various countries should be treated equally, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.

This is not the first time Facebook is targeting media outlets.

In 2018, Facebook targeted hundreds of accounts allegedly tied to Iran and Russia under the pretext of fighting what it calls misinformation campaigns. Among the accounts was one belonging to the Quest for Truth (Q4T) Iranian media organization, which promotes Islamic values.

The social media giant is also known for blocking pages critical of the Israeli regime.

Twitter and YouTube have also conducted specific bans targeting accounts allegedly linked to countries that are critical of the policies of Western governments, such as accounts in Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.

The United States has a history of calling on social media companies Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to block Iranian accounts in specific as part of its so-called maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.

In December last year, Google targeted Iranian broadcasters Press TV and Hispan TV, blocking access to their official YouTube accounts without any prior notice.

Over the past years, the US tech giant has recurrently been opting for such measures against Iranian media outlets. It has taken on Press TV more than any other Iranian outlet given the expanse of its viewership and readership.

Its actions have clearly demonstrated that Google is or acts as an agent of the US government.

Facebook’s recent move also comes as the social media giant itself has previously paid hundreds of contractors to listen to and transcribe snippets of users’ conversations.

Facebook, which has settled a record $5-billion fine with the US Federal Trade Commission for misusing users’ private data, has given differing responses to reports that it uses audio recordings to better target ads or make its pages more attractive.

While the American mainstream media give mere lip service to press freedoms and to concerns expressed by millions of Americans to how their data is stored and used, there have been many reports about social media companies providing back doors for use by US intelligence agencies to have real time observation on every thought, word and movement of every American and foreign national who uses their platforms.

The American government views media outlets such as Press TV as dangerous, hostile and subversive to its global military and economic hegemonic agenda.

SOURCE: PRESS TV