ICYMI, Bashar Al-Assad hearts U.S. social media
- 6 years ago
SILICON VALLEY — U.S. companies are providing services to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on social media.
As we've said before, U.S. Treasury sanctions, specifically Executive Order 13582 prohibit American companies from providing services to Syria without obtaining a license from the Treasury Department. Do they have a license? We don't know. They may well have. If they don't, they could be breaking U.S. law.
Bashar al-Assad's propaganda channel was removed from YouTube not long after we reported on it last month.
Yesterday our further reporting Syrian government and media appearing on the platform garnered no comment from the U.S. government or Google, YouTube's parent company.
The Syrian dictator has accounts on U.S. sites Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Syria's Permanent Mission for the United Nations links to Assad's Facebook and Twitter accounts — not to mention that now dead YouTube account and that Facebook page, links to the Assad on the Instagram.
As we've said before, U.S. Treasury sanctions, specifically Executive Order 13582 prohibit American companies from providing services to Syria without obtaining a license from the Treasury Department. Do they have a license? We don't know. They may well have. If they don't, they could be breaking U.S. law.
Bashar al-Assad's propaganda channel was removed from YouTube not long after we reported on it last month.
Yesterday our further reporting Syrian government and media appearing on the platform garnered no comment from the U.S. government or Google, YouTube's parent company.
The Syrian dictator has accounts on U.S. sites Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Syria's Permanent Mission for the United Nations links to Assad's Facebook and Twitter accounts — not to mention that now dead YouTube account and that Facebook page, links to the Assad on the Instagram.