Iranians call for closing Khamenei’s X accounts

Many Iranians, who welcomed Meta’s decision to remove the Iranian Supreme Leader’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, are now urging Elon Musk to follow suit and deactivate his X accounts.

Meta took the step of shutting down the Iranian leader's Instagram and Facebook accounts on Thursday. A spokesperson for Meta stated that this action was taken due to repeated violations of Meta's policies concerning "dangerous organizations and individuals."

A post on X suggested a tweet storm to ask Musk to follow Meta’s example and shut down Khamenei’s accounts, a demand long pursued by Iranian activists and many social media users. “A country that bans something for its populace should not have the right to use it,” the tweet said.

Iranians can only access Instagram and other major social media and instant messaging platforms such as X, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram if they have installed anti-filtering software on their devices. They need to circumvent government filters that make these apps inaccessible in the country.

Khamenei's Persian and English Instagram accounts boast over five million and 200,000 followers, respectively. His accounts in Persian and English on X each have one million and 727 thousand followers. Additionally, he maintains X accounts in various other languages, including Arabic, French, Urdu, and Azerbaijani.

Social media users in Iran have largely shunned domestically developed social media applications such as Wisgoon and Nazdika, designed to replace Instagram, and Rubika, a messaging application, for various reasons including their quality and lack of privacy.

Experts have warned that domestic apps, which the authorities are trying to promote, are very vulnerable to government intrusion and there are serious safety and privacy concerns including the fear that security services could be able to spy on people through them.