Iran’s Supreme Leader suspended from Twitter after possible Trump threat
They are linking the account to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Twitter has banned an account for allegedly making death threats toward Donald Trump.
A tweet surfaced on Thursday of a drone flying overhead of the former president that included a message mentioning revenge. The AP reports Twitter has banned the account potentially linked to an Iranian supreme leader because it goes against its company policy.
Twitter is calling the account @khamenei_site fake because it posted similar tweets as state-run media. They are linking the account to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The caption of the tweet said “Revenge is certain” in Farsi.
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The account also included a link to Khamenei’s website on which the same image has appeared.
Khamenei’s office apparently has more than one account but they did not post the image of Trump and the drone. They remain active.
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There is potential bad blood between the former president and Khamenei after a U.S. drone struck and killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. It is approximately one year after his death and Khamenei committed to revenge in a speech last month against whoever called for the hit. He did not mention Trump by name.
“Revenge will certainly happen at the right time,” said Khamenei in the speech.
Twitter said the account violates its, “manipulation and spam policy.”
It appears as if Twitter is clearing house of accounts that do not follow its policies as they recently banned Trump.
As reported by theGrio, Twitter banned Trump’s account on Jan. 8 citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
The social platform has been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter initially suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol.
Twitter’s move deprives Trump of a potent tool he has used to communicate directly with the American people for more than a decade. He has used Twitter to announce policy changes, challenge opponents, insult enemies, praise his allies (and himself), and to spread misinformation.
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