Meta Blocks Khamenei's Accounts on Instagram

The English and Persian accounts of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, were deleted by Meta on Thursday, February 8. Khamenei's Persian account had over 5.1 million followers, while his English account had over 204,000 followers. A Meta spokesperson told the Middle East Eye news website, "We removed these accounts due to repeated violations of our policies regarding dangerous organizations and individuals." According to this policy, Meta removes "organizations and individuals that promote violent missions or are involved in violence" from its platforms. In recent years, many Iranian opponents of the Islamic Republic have called for the expulsion of Islamic Republic officials, especially Khamenei, from these platforms, citing decades of repression of freedom of expression by the Islamic Republic and the prohibition of access to social media for Iranians inside the country. Many supporters of Israel have long accused Khamenei's social media accounts of spreading anti-Semitic content, including calls for the destruction of Israel. Recent activities of Khamenei's accounts on social media include repeated support for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel and frequent attacks by Houthis on ships passing through the Red Sea. Hamas and the Houthis are groups supported by the Islamic Republic. Khamenei's accounts on Instagram were also blocked in 2019 but were later allowed to operate again. The insistence of Islamic Republic officials on using social media comes at a time when many critical or opposing activists have been arrested by government intelligence and security agencies solely for expressing their views on social media and have been sentenced to long prison terms by the judiciary.