US trying to block messages of real information from Iran: Analyst

The US social networking service Twitter’s temporary suspension of the account of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei aims “to block messages of real information,” says an American author and radio host.

The Twitter accounts belonging to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei were shut down temporarily on Tuesday morning.

The Persian and English accounts became accessible several minutes later.

However, the number of followers had decreased considerably. The English page's 732,000 followers had dropped to 490,000.

The US company announced that what happened was a “mistake”. 

Meanwhile, the Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, and the Video accounts at Twitter remained blocked.

Stephen Lendman told Press TV that the incident was no “mistake” and it was part of the efforts of US President Donald Trump and his lackeys to stop the “real information” from getting to the people.

"The US is trying to block messages of real information that people everywhere need to know," Lendman insisted.

The US government aims to block the "message" reaching ordinary people who need to know the truth.

“The Trump regime's aim to block messages from anybody, especially leaders of nations, that the US does not want to have heard by ordinary people, whether in the US, or in Iran, or anywhere else,” Lendman said.

The American author and radio host said blocking the leader and other top Iranian officials was part of the Trump administration’s orchestrated efforts to suppress free speech of the Iranian nation.

He said the new outlets that try to spread the message of truth and the voice of the oppressed nations, such as Press TV, were also placed under limitations and restrictions by the US government.

“The same thing happens to Press TV ... I can't get access,” he pointed out.

“They only want the information they want broadcast and put out [by] themselves through established media in the US and other western countries ...  and Israel,” Lendman noted.

Giving in to political pressure

A group of Republican senators in the US Congress sent a letter to Twitter last month, urging the American social media platform to suspend the accounts of Ayatollah Khamenei and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In the letter signed by Senator Ted Cruz (R – Texas) and others, the senators claimed that  allowing the message of Iranian leaders’ to get through to the people of the world was providing the leaders with “assistance”.

Twitter, which states its company's mission as the promotion of “free and global conversation ... to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers,” has said in its blog that it would not remove accounts of world leaders.

"Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate," it said previously in a blog post in 2018.   

The recent incident suggests that Twitter has has given in to the political pressure and violated its own stated mission.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir