If the government wants the digital economy to have a share of the country’s per capital income, it should reconsider its behavior
According to Iran digital economy annotation, yesterday, news was published about the filing of a legal case in Tehran’s General and Revolution Court for the Digikala online store; A case that seems to have been formed due to the images printed on some of the products offered in this online store.
After this incident, Digikala issued a statement, while apologizing to the users for the existence of the goods of a certain seller, and announced that it will take all the monitoring measures to remove these goods and prevent this from happening again. In the text of Digikala’s statement, it is stated that the sale of goods in accordance with the cultural and religious frameworks of the people has always been one of the priorities of this online store.
An hour after the release of the statement and despite the explanations provided by Digikala, Masoud Tabatabaei, the CEO of this company, was arrested. Of course, a few hours after this arrest, it was announced that the CEO of Digikala was released on bail and must appear in court again.
Repetition of a tragic story
This is not the first time that the platform itself is blamed for the violations of the platform users in the country’s startup ecosystem. Similar to this incident, there was a challenge that Divar was dealing with last year. After many challenges, the CEO of this platform was finally acquitted by clarifying that the criminal responsibility of the content published on the platforms rests with the user.
Undoubtedly, events like this have destructive effects on the atmosphere governing the country’s startup ecosystem; Effects that can affect public opinion for a long time and consequently the level of people’s willingness to enter the ecosystem. This time, many members of the startup ecosystem protested against the arrest of Digikala’s CEO on social networks.
“Nima Ghazi”, the co-founder of Alibaba and the chairman of the board of directors of the E-commerce Association, on his Twitter page, considered what happened to the CEO of the Digikala online store as an example of ill-considered treatment of a platform manager.
“Ashkan Armandehi”, the CEO of Divar platform, on his Twitter page, while pointing out that threats, suspensions and obstructions or arrests and court cases have a specific message, he said: “Some people don’t want someone in this country with the help of knowledge and new ideas and companionship. A group of the country’s best young professionals will help improve the conditions of society and people’s lives.”
“Milad Monshipour”, the CEO of Tapsi, was among the people who reacted to the arrest of the CEO of Digikala. He wrote about this: “It is not acceptable that such decisions are made out of ignorance, and these actions cause the destruction of the little remaining hope, and the destruction of hope means putting an ax to the roots of the country.”
“Nima Namdari”, the CEO of Karnameh, in response to this incident, pointed out that without a doubt, if someone is just a little bit passionate about the state of the country, regardless of who he is a supporter of or what his beliefs are, he is sorry and angry about these behaviors.
“Atta Khalighi”, the co-founder of Persian blog and Otaghak, also announced that the tasteful treatment and maximum pressure on private businesses and the imprisonment of the CEO of one of the most successful digital businesses in the country requires more than expressing regret. He wrote about this on his Twitter page: “This is an obvious injustice.”
According to “Amir Hossein Rad”, the co-founder of Nobitex, one of the difficulties of a CEO in Iran is that he must be ready to be summoned and answer for unrelated reasons. In addition, regardless of the illogicality of the reason for this arrest, it should be possible to maintain hope for fighting and reform.
“Reza Masoudifar”, CEO of Tetherland, also believes that in such a situation, it is not possible for foreign investors to enter the country.
Hamed Bidi, the CEO of the Karzar platform, also announced on X social network Space (formerly Twitter) about the arrest of the CEO of Digikala: “We have faced such incidents many times in the Karzar.” He also said: “We believe that these existing procedures are not transparent; It is the same procedure that the CEO of the largest Market Police is arrested because of a suspicious plan that clearly did not intend to offend.”
The country’s startup ecosystem has suffered many tensions so far – from internet outages to other pressures; The pressures that have been applied to platform managers in various ways. If the government wants the digital economy to have a share of the country’s per capita income, it should reconsider its behavior.
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