The Effect of Social Media Filtering Policies on Citizens' General Sense of Security - A Study of 18-65-Year-Old Citizens of Tehran's 22nd District

In order to protect Iranian users in cyberspace, in recent years, some social networks such as Facebook and Telegram have been filtered by the relevant authorities of our country. But still some users use filtered networks in different ways and using tools such as VPNs. The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of social network filtering policies on the general sense of security of users.

The present research was conducted in a quasi-experimental way. The method of data collection was field study and the tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population of the research was 402,453 citizens aged 18 to 65 living in the 22nd district of Tehran in 2015, and 384 people were selected for the sample size based on Cochran's formula.

The use of tools such as VPN and the use of unethical sites and undesirable content in cyberspace can affect the sense of identity, collective, cultural and intellectual security of users.

The results showed that the policy of filtering social networks has not only led to an increase in the public security of users who have not used VPN, but to some extent, it has also provided a sense of public security in some of the users who have used VPN.