Twitter has reportedly hidden a post Friday by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for promoting conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines produced in the West.
The tweet from Khamanei’s official handle asserted that COVID-19 vaccines imported from the United States and Great Britain were “completely untrustworthy,” according to the Associated Press. (RELATED: Iranian Foreign Minister Warns Trump To Avoid Alleged Israeli ‘Trap’)
“It’s not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations,” the tweet further claimed, referring to Britain and the U.S., in addition to alleging that French coronavirus vaccines “aren’t trustworthy.”
Please be our voice:
— Masih Alinejad ????️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 8, 2021
Twitter should put a warning label or ban @khamenei_ir.
I warned about regime lies in this video.@OsloFF https://t.co/psKDc8QlUA
Khamenei has forbidden Iran from importing vaccines from the two countries, Al Jazeera reported. Iran’s Red Crescent rejected several thousand American Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines that a group of U.S.-based benefactors planned to donate to Iran, which has struggled to stem the worst virus outbreak in the Middle East, the AP reported.
Twitter permanently banned U.S. President Donald Trump from the platform earlier Friday, alleging “risk of further incitement of violence.” (RELATED: Twitter Permanently Bans President Trump’s Account)
The social media site’s ban of President Trump was contrasted with its milder approach towards Khamenei, prompting some to accuse the platform of double standards, VOA News reported.
Khamenei called for genocide in this tweet. It’s still up. His account is still up https://t.co/OwmVhzB46C
— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) January 9, 2021
Dear @TwitterSafety, if you take dangerous political rhetoric seriously, why you dont suspend dictators like Khamenei of Iran? Why only Trump? And why only in recent days?
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) January 8, 2021
Many of Twitter’s critics pointed out Khameini’s history of posting comments against Israel, according to VOA news.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai in May tweeted pictures of Khamenei’s handle allegedly “glorifying violence.”
Serious question for @Twitter: Do these tweets from Supreme Leader of Iran @khamenei_ir violate “Twitter Rules about glorifying violence”? pic.twitter.com/oEkCC8UzFV
— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) May 29, 2020
While Twitter banned Trump, the handles of Louis Farrakhan and several Chinese propagandists remained active, Fox News reported. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Louis Farrakhan promotes anti-Semitic, anti-LGBT, and anti-White racism.