Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been banned for “repeatedly violating” Meta’s “dangerous organisations and individuals policy”, a spokesperson of the technology conglomerate told news agency AFP.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said on Thursday (February 8) that it had banned the accounts of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for violating the social media organisation’s “content policy”.
“We have removed these accounts for repeatedly violating our Dangerous Organisations & Individuals policy,” a Meta spokesperson told news agency AFP.
The Facebook and Instagram accounts of Khamenei, according to Meta, were reportedly part of a network that engaged in “inauthentic activity” and “misleading people” about “who they are and what they are doing”, news website Al Bawaba reported.
On opening Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Instagram account, a “this page isn’t available” message is popping up on the screen.
Meta reportedly removed as many as 200 Facebook and 125 Instagram accounts, nine groups and 29 pages linked to the said Iranian network, the Al Bawaba report further stated.
Though Meta did not mention the Israel-Hamas war, the technology conglomerate has been under pressure lately to ban Iran’s Supreme Leader ever since the October 7 attack by the Palestinian group, which is supported by Iran.
Meta’s policy, on which the decision was based, says that organisations or individuals that ” proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms” are not permitted on the firm’s social media portals, in an “effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm”.