During recent days the fourth popular site for users around the world which is by chance the fourth popular site for Iranians has displayed a survey to every one in which it is asked whether they agree on blocking the access of users of the countries under the sanction of the U.S or not? Despite the fact that many Iranian users of the Internet's largest social network have opposed this action, finally 75 percent of 200 million users of this network agreed on Internet boycotting of these countries and now Iranian users are worried about any type of blocking action from this site.
Sanction after filtering
Facebook according to classification is among social networks. Social networks are groups of sites that have been very popular in recent years due to the ease of communication between users.
In Social networks producing content is done by the users and the creators of the site just provide an atmosphere for communication.
Perhaps this topic caused Facebook to be filtered soon in Iran and this is just when there was no knowledge about the sites of this type in Iran.
Despite this, a few months ago, following the sudden opening of this site by the Iranian filtering system this social network became one of the most popular sites for Iranian users, so that based on ALEXA site statistics, after Google, Yahoo and Belogfa Facebook is the fourth popular site for Iranians, while according to the same site information, only one percent of the users of this site are the ones who are connected to this site from Iran. But this one percent can be equal to several million users. This is not a minor thing for a country where Internet penetration factor is less than 30 percent.
Iranianization of Facebook
Why Facebook is so popular among Iranians? Apparently we can find a part of the answer among the facilities of this site. Facebook was establishe by Mark Zuckerberg, a second year student at Harvard University in 2003 and its goal was to make close relations between the students of this university.
This site which was called FACEMASH at that time, Gradually generalized to other universities and educational centers, and suddenly was recommended to all people over 13 years. The site has been made several changes during this period has, many complaints raised against it, however, its facilities and popularity has regularly increased.
Facebook basically is a good way to get information from friends or being informed of their views, polls and ....There are many people who have found their ex-classmates on this site and the ones who have known things about their friends or relatives that even the most expert inquirers were unable to reach. The reason is almost clear. Facebook, like any other phenomenon suddenly covers wide range of people and an explosive infatuation to it was created. And also because the users write such things about themselves or put such contents on their Facebook profiles that are unbelievable even for their relatives.
Examples of such infatuations can be seen at the time of appearance of other Internet services like weblog, Messenger and....
The sudden opening of this site filtering led to an unprecedented rush of Iranian users to it.
It is said that only in a few weeks in several million Iranians have registered in this site and this is exactly coincided with the development of the Internet and growth in selling computer hardware in Iran.
International site under the U.S rules
Although Facebook was born and developed in America and the company made up for it is still in America, but its owners are trying to raise its international prestige. According to the statistics this site has published itself more than 70 percent of users of the site are outside the United States. However, administrator of this site, such as other Internet giants emphasize to manage it under the rules of America. Another interesting point is that the fastest growth in this site is done by the users over 35 and this indicates that other Facebook is no longer just a site favored by the youth. Former student that said to establish this site to catch the attention of another student is now a billionaire that easily reject the biggest offers of the biggest companies. 100 million people enter this site Daily and spend 3.5 billion minutes of their time on this addictive site.
Facebook like other software and web sites caused the familiarity and enthusiasm of millions of people with computer due to its large-scale services and a large number of software designed for it, and this is considered as a benefit especially for the developing countries.
In spite of this advantage some contents on it can be a threat to some governments, too. However, this site in avoid its users from producing immoral and violent contents clearly in the rules and obligations section.
In the U.S Presidential Election, the many Facebook users support of Obama actually had created a big Internet campaign for Obama, and this indicated that Facebook has exceeded the limits of an only dating site.
New regulations against Iranian Users
What makes Iranian users worried during the recent days is the survey on new rules and regulations of this site. In the survey that ended on Friday, users could give their opinions about these new rules.
Many users mainly are inattentive to these rules and regulations and never read its long texts, but it's clearly mentined in the new rules that Facebook is not available for the country that has been under the sanctions by the U.S Government or Treasury Department. However, this "unavailability" is an ambiguous legal term and it is not clear whether Facebook will close this site on Iranian IP s or this is only a scheme to escape the legal consequences.
In an ordinary look, it seems unlikely that this site wants to deprive some million active users, but on the other hand strict sanction rules have forced not only Facebook but also many other sites to block the connection of the Iranian users. Internet sanctions in recent years caused most of the pressure against the Iranian users and day by day it's becoming more and more.
Although Facebook sanction can be felt by Iranian users in a broader level, but many websites providing internet zones, financial exchange and credit card and even ordinary sites has already taken the possibility to access to Iranian. Such situation is clearly illustrating theof Iranian users in the Internet. Sites that even pass the stricter filtering layers catch users in the sanction tour and this is an incomplete and anecdote.
Source:ITIran