Investigating the political - security role of virtual social networks on the national security of the Islamic republic of Iran

In recent decades, the development of new communication technologies has ledto dramatic changes in various aspects of human life and its effects are increasing day byday. The Internet and now virtual social networks as the backbone of the new informationand communication technologies play a key role in shaping this new process and the emergenceof new economic, cultural, social, security and political spaces. The issue of the roleof these networks in the political-security stability and the pattern of social communicationsof societies has become a serious concern in most countries. The purpose of this study is toinvestigate the political-security role of social networks and their impact on national securityof the Islamic republic of Iran. The method of this study is qualitative content analysis and itsstatistical community consists of experts and elites in the field of security and virtual space.Sample size in the mentioned group was 13 persons based on saturation of categories andidentified information. Research findings show that virtual social networks are like doubleedgedswords that can create a set of positive and negative actions in the political-securityenvironment of the Islamic republic of Iran. In the current situation, due to divergent and unintegratedpolicy making of virtual space in the Islamic republic of Iran, social networks havehighlighted the country's vulnerability in some aspects of social security. These networks arenow actively working to induce the inefficiency of the Islamic republic of Iran’s system, createconflict normalization, illegitimatize the structure of the political system, weaken the nationalcohesion and create divide between society and sovereignty, create a context for people'sconfrontation with the political system and weaken the national beliefs. Furthermore thesenetworks attempt in the security domain to control the information of users with espionage,prepare communication tools for subversive groups, collect the information of people andspecific jobs, train destructive trainings in the context of social networks and transfer classifiedinformation to disrupt the national security. Creating a strong structure for policy making,organizing the country's virtual space and establishing the national network of informationcan be effective in resolving many problems in this field.