Baghdad
- In a medium-sized house west of the capital, Baghdad, the young man, Muhammad Mahmoud, lives in a modest room, consuming his daily time in developing his electronic project, which he started about 5 years ago.
Muhammad, who is 28 years old, holds an engineering degree from Al-Mustansiriya University, and worked for not long years as a programmer for computers and websites, in addition to his passion for designing websites for political parties and personalities in Iraq and some Arab countries.
The Iraqi young man, who did not hide his influence on Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and dreamed of becoming a business leader and the owner of a project idea bearing an Arab tint, began in the year 2017 to design a social networking site similar to Mark’s experience, and was able over a year to develop the site’s content, It includes features, characteristics and tools similar to monthly websites.
Muhammad tells the leadership of Al Jazeera Net that the site was called "Sankom", which is an abbreviation for "Social Arab Network Work Community".
At first, he limited the scope of its spread to the local level only, but then worked hard for a whole year to reach all countries of the world with changing its name to “Free World” [https://www.freewolrd.com] The number of subscribers to the site, which was designed by the Iraqi youth, is more than a thousand, some of them are from Arab countries and others are from foreign countries, as the site includes 14 official languages that make it easier for subscribers to use it.
In his speech, Mohamed Mahmoud confirms that the website development process included adding an online store for registered members to shop directly, as well as the presence of another store for members of the site's management.
Muhammad is currently working on designing a work button that helps registered members to record videos with efficiency and design similar to the "Tik Tok" application, at a time when the site allows the authentication of accounts for users, and there are classifications for subscribers to the new site, as the classification is based on profession Such as journalist, doctor, politician and so on.
Muhammad says that his project has cost 10 thousand dollars so far, but he did not complete the first stage of the design because it needs a successive development series to reach the world, as the project still needs one million dollars to compete with the famous Facebook site.
The Iraqi youth asserts that the money he spent on the project was from his personal effort, after he failed to obtain government support to finance his project, despite his communication with the Ministry of Communications, the Prime Ministers and the Republic.
The young engineer points out that two parties offered him financial support to finance the project, but they stipulated that they control some of the website's policies, but he refused to do so in order to preserve the independence of the website and its policies.
Spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Communications, Raad Asaad Al-Mashhadani (Al-Jazeera)
incomplete support
The Iraqi Ministry of Communications confirms continuing support for Iraqi innovations in the field of the Internet, as the official spokesman for the ministry, Raad Asaad Al-Mashhadani, confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that "the ministry has provided jobs for more than 600 Iraqi youth who specialize in computer engineering and modernizing social networking sites." Al-Mashhadani indicated that the website designer "Free World" was able to establish an Iraqi website, and it is in direct contact with the Ministry of Communications, which pledged to support and develop the necessary infrastructure for the new communication site, but some of the site's supplies need direct government sponsorship, which is why the Ministry of Communications must provide support for the success of this project .
Former member of the Iraqi Media and Communications Commission, Salem Mashkour
leading goal
And the expert in the field of communications and media, Salem Mashkour, confirms in his speech to Al Jazeera Net that "the design of a communication site the size of Facebook and Twitter expresses a leading goal in Iraq," and this is what entails finding high coordination between the authorities to monitor its content, and Mashkour points out in his speech that the responsibility of Censorship of electronic content is borne by the Media and Communications Commission in cooperation with the security authorities, but the matter is irregular and there is no agreement with communication companies such as Facebook and Twitter, as is the case in the rest of the world.
Mashkour, who was a former member of the Iraqi Media and Communications Commission, suggests registering the new Iraqi communication site with the Media and Communications Commission to protect it legally and security, provided that the registration is under the name of "communication site" and not a company, to avoid entering into a commercial registration cycle, and if the authority stipulates that, it will be It is necessary, in addition to working on the site to publish controls for publishing on it inspired by the controls of Facebook and the media discourse controls approved by the Media and Communications Authority.
economic dimensions
Thanks in his speech, he explained the economic dimensions of the Free World website and the profitability it will achieve for Iraq, given that the site will be of some use similar to the popular online shopping via Facebook, especially in light of the absence of official restrictions and taxes on it, in addition to the possibility of including The site is commercial, political and other advertisements within the controls that the Media Authority is currently monitoring based on the complaint of the victim.