This handout picture provided by the office of Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him sitting on stage during a meeting with Iranian air force commanders in Tehran February, 2024, with a local Kaman-12 drone displayed behind him. AFP
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, offered no specifics about its reasoning. However, it said it removed the accounts “for repeatedly violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy”.
“We do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms,” the policy states. That includes those designated as terrorists by the US government.
Facebook is already banned in Iran since its 2009 presidential election and Instagram and WhatsApp messaging service have been blocked last year.
Khamenei and his vast patronage network inside Iran have long been targeted by US sanctions – Khamenei himself since 2019 by the administration of then president Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrawing the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Khamenei still maintains an account on X, formerly Twitter.
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