Meta Network said on Thursday, February 8 (19th) that it closed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, due to violations of the network’s content policy.

“We closed these accounts because they consistently violated our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy,” a Meta Network spokesperson told AFP.

Despite the fact that Mita did not mention the war between Israel and Hamas, but after the attacks of Hamas on Israel on October 7, there was pressure on this network to close the accounts of this religious leader of Iran.

Khamenei challenged the attacks of Hamas on Israel in his social pages and accounts, but he denied the involvement of Iran in these attacks.

He also supported Palestinian retaliatory attacks on Israel and Houthi rebels’ attacks on commercial ships and boats in the Red Sea.

Ayatollah Khamenei, who has ruled Iran for 35 years, has five million fans on his Instagram.

The MITA policy, on the basis of which this decision was made, states: “In an effort to prevent harm and disruption to the real world, we are targeting organizations and individuals who declare a mission of violence or engage in violence.” We don’t allow it to exist in our frameworks (platforms).”

Mita also says that he will remove the description, support and representation of “dangerous organizations and individuals” from his platform.

Facebook and Instagram are blocked in Iran, but Iranians can access these networks using a different software (VPN). The Mita network had previously blocked the accounts of some other organizations and individuals, including the Taliban.