Meta has suspended the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei due to what the company calls “repeated violations” of its “dangerous organizations and individuals policy.
Khamenei in the past has referred to Israel and Zionism as “an obvious plague for the world of Islam.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 assault, Khamenei wrote on X: “God willing, the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces throughout the region.”
Khamenei was kicked out from the popular social media platforms following his repeated calls to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel, which has been engaged in warfare against Hamas after the Palestinian terrorist organization’s October 7 assault which left nearly 1,200 people dead.
Pro-Israel organizations have lobbied social media companies to remove Khamenei’s accounts.
His Persian-language Instagram page had more than 5.1 million followers, while the English-language version had a following of more than 204,000.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has thus far not deactivated Khamenei’s account. He has more than 1 million followers on the site.
Facebook, Instagram and X are all blocked in Iran, but Khamenei reportedly keeps his accounts for audiences outside the country.
