OANA can help regulate social media networks

Tehran, IRNA - The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies can play a key role in the fight against Western powers' propaganda campaign to dominate independent state by arranging professional regulations for social media platforms. Since the social media networks are the most recent media in the world, which can be misused by big companies and certain states to manipulate public opinion throughout the globe, systematizing the platforms seems to be a dire need of the today's world. One of the significant issues, which can be focused by the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), is the misuse of cyberspace by world powers, who try to dominate other countries; so, regulating the cyberspace and standing against the attempts to manipulate public opinion are among the crucial topics of the day. The Western governments, who have a long history of using traditional media to propagate fake news to target other nations, now are utilizing modern social media to disrupt public opinion in a hybrid cognitive warfare in a bid to get in the way of empowerment of independent states, who want to stand against bullying policies of the imperialist government. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) can play a key role during its three-year presidency in the OANA to pay heed to promotion of regulating social media networks, because the organization declared that one of its objectives is fighting unilateralism in disseminating information, which is misused by some Western states. The Graphika social media analytics firm and the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) reported that numerous fake accounts have been omitted by META, Facebook, Twitter and so on, which were active in circulating fake news with the aim of manipulating public opinion in Iran, Russia and China. According to the Graphika and SIO, an interlinked network of fake accounts in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and five other social media platforms was discovered, which have been trying to propagate narratives of the West on the Central Asia and the West Asia regions. IRNA hosts the 18th general assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), which kicked off in capital Tehran today (October 24). In the two-day assembly, around 60 senior directors, managers, and editors from 35 OANA member states will discuss various topics, including the development and strengthening of media cooperation. The general assembly is being held at the highest level of every news agency to discuss infrastructural issues; the upgrade of activities of members; macro-politics; review, reform, and ratification of agreements of the executive board and the technical and news groups; offering suggestions to the executive board and pursuing executive issues; as well as decision-making on new members. The OANA was established on December 22, 1961, in a bid to facilitate information dissemination among regional countries with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) along with Fars and Mehr news agencies are the three media agencies in Iran representing the Islamic country in the OANA. IRNA is one of the first members of the organization, and presided over it between 1997 to 2000; then, the Iranian news agency acted as the vice chairman of the regional organization in 2016, and now IRNA is a member of the executive committee of OANA. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish