US tech giant Google has integrated itself with the American government and intelligence agencies, establishing a highly profitable business with nearly every major military and spy agency in the country, says an American political analyst.
“Google is intertwined with the US government and US intelligence agencies,” said Rodney Martin, a former congressional staffer based in Arizona.
“Google has government contracts with the US federal government, with the Department of Defense, with intelligence agencies,” Martin told Press TV on Thursday.
“Google is taking marching orders from the US government under threat of having its very lucrative federal contracts cancelled,” he added. “Google is the de facto arm of the US government.”
Google has once again 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.
The most recent move came on Tuesday. Users shortly flooded both the networks with messages asking why the international networks' YouTube channels had been put out of service.
The two networks were last targeted in April, when Google similarly shut their YouTube and Gmail accounts.
The previous attack also denied the networks any advance notification, sufficing to cite a nebulous “violation of policies.”
Previously, Press TV’s YouTube channel was closed in September and November 2013 and April 2014.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting — which runs Press TV and Hispan TV as part of its World Service — has called such attacks clear examples of censorship.
“Press TV, Iranian TV, which is widely viewed around the globe, including the United States, is able to get the truth out as to the situation in Iran, which runs contrary to the misinformation and disinformation campaign being perpetrated by the United State government about Iran,” Martin said.