Let’s not filter virtual street vendors by polarizing the atmosphere
Let’s not filter virtual street vendors by polarizing the atmosphere. With the onset of protests in Iran and in the first weeks, many online businesses refrained from promotional activities on social media, especially Instagram, in solidarity with the protesters. A campaign was also launched threatening to unfollow any business that deviated from this rule. However, this approach, with the continued filtering of Instagram, has put the livelihood of thousands at risk.
Attacking small and medium-sized businesses in the virtual space while larger businesses and market merchants with stronger financial backing continue their activities without objections is problematic. Polarization based on the idea of ‘either with us or against us’ targeting small businesses ultimately risks becoming a factor against the people’s wishes, as it will destroy the income source and livelihood of many people left alone in poor economic conditions.
Influencers are a different matter.
A social media user wrote that the account of a woman heading a household who has started a business using social media and earns her living, or a girl or woman selling her handmade crafts, and a man whose only source of family income is this virtual window, is separate from those celebrities and influencers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers who earn hundreds of millions from advertisements.
A famous example is a blogger named Sadaf Beauty, who, after a few days of calling for strikes and street protests, announced to her audience that she could no longer support the protesters, and her advertising contracts were more important. Her behavior was met with harsh reactions from Instagram users. Some described her actions as a kind of dirty business from the protests, while others wrote that her saying ‘I put advertisements alongside informing about Iran’ means the ultimate business from protests and events inside Iran, even in the United States.
Protesting against these influencers, whose support for protests and withdrawal from them are all scenarios for attracting more followers and personal gain, by leaving virtual pages and not following them, is certainly logical. However, attacking small businesses with at most a few thousand followers is not only unwise but also counterproductive, as continuing this trend ultimately leads to the financial weakening and bankruptcy of the same protesting social body that is currently under the most political, social, and economic pressure.
Let’s not filter virtual street vendors.
Virtual street vendors are not super-capitalist companies and lack the capability and capital to profit from brand changes in crisis situations, nor do they have powerful supporters among the elite. Instead, they are owners of small businesses that collapse with the slightest push. They do not enjoy any privileges, connections, or financial and supportive tools, governmental or non-governmental, and their only job support is their audience in the virtual space. The recommendation to cease activity and the threat of unfollowing them follows no logic, especially when published statistics show that the sales decline of small and medium-sized businesses has been 3 to 4 times that of large businesses.
According to statistics, medium and small businesses have experienced a 40 to 70 percent sales decline, while large businesses have seen a 10 to 20 percent decline. Their financial transactions have also decreased by 50 to 60 percent, and some reports indicate that some Instagram businesses have experienced up to a 100 percent sales reduction, meaning their sales have dropped to zero. Most sales by Instagram activists were from those who did not have a website or application alongside their page, and during the shutdown of social networks and VPNs, their sales approached zero.
The president of the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association has also stated that Instagram filtering has put 400,000 online businesses in a severe crisis and endangered the livelihood of millions. The advisor to the Supreme Council of Islamic Labor Associations in the country also says that today many families have started businesses in the form of home jobs and, with minimal capital, like street vendors on the sidewalk, provide for their livelihood in the virtual space or provide supplementary income for their lives through internet activities. What will happen to these groups, many of whom are women heading households?
In a situation where filtering has put the jobs and income of thousands at risk of destruction, it is not appropriate for us to act as a secondary filter for small businesses with hasty and mistaken decisions.