A Twitter account believed to belong to Iran’s supreme leader has triggered controversy among Iranians whose own access to social networking websites remains blocked.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the final word in Iran, has come under intense criticism from Iran’s many bloggers for launching a crackdown Twitter and Facebook while his office apparently runs a Twitter account under Khamenei_Ir.
A Twitter account believed to belong to Iran’s supreme leader has triggered controversy among Iranians whose own access to social networking websites remains blocked.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the final word in Iran, has come under intense criticism from Iran’s many bloggers for launching a crackdown Twitter and Facebook while his office apparently runs a Twitter account under Khamenei_Ir.
The official website of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi criticised Khamenei for allegedly signing up to Twitter under the headline: “If it’s prohibited why is it that the leader’s office has a Twitter account?”
Since the disputed presidential election in June 2009, the government has repeatedly condemned Iranians who use Facebook and Twitter, saying the social networking sites were created by Iran’s enemies to topple the Islamic regime.
Access to more than 5m websites is blocked inside Iran. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Iran is the world’s leading jailer of journalists and bloggers. More than 100 have been imprisoned since the 2009 election.
The Iranian embassy in London said today that it could not confirm whether the account is run by his office.
At least two fake Twitter accounts have been set up in Khamenei’s name, both of which have attracted more audiences than the real account.
Iran said last week that it has launched a cyber police unit to monitor the activities of Iranians online.