X Suspends Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s New Hebrew-Language Account
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has suspended a newly created account for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew, The Associated Press reports.
The account, which opened on Sunday with a standard Islamic greeting in Hebrew, was suspended early Monday with a brief note stating “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules.” The specific violation remains unclear.
The suspension comes amidst heightened tensions between Iran and Israel following a series of attacks. This past weekend, Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian targets in response to a ballistic missile attack earlier this month. While Ayatollah Khamenei acknowledged the strikes in a speech on Sunday, he urged caution against “exaggerating” or “downplaying” the events, stopping short of calling for retaliation.
This is not the first instance of Khamenei’s accounts being suspended or removed from social media platforms. In February, Meta removed Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to the supreme leader due to his support of Hamas following the militant group’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
It’s worth noting that social media platforms like X and Facebook are blocked in Iran, requiring citizens to utilize VPNs to access them. Despite the restrictions, Khamenei’s office has maintained multiple accounts on X for years, often sending messages in various languages.
