As a group of Iranians outside of Iran, we call on the META on behalf of Iranians fighting for their freedom against the tyrannical dictatorship of the Islamic Republic of Iran to permanently deactivate Ali Khamenei’s Instagram account. For over 43 years, this regime has committed unforgettable crimes inside Iran and has kept global terror alive by supporting terrorist organizations. 

At their worst brutal suppression, in the recent uprise following the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini, we have witnessed severe cases of crime against humanity as the I. R. and IRGC have been torturing, raping and killing civilians, including children and teenagers, in their fight for basic human rights. Following these incidents, the internet has been shut down in Iran by the I.R regime to limit the media spreading and silencing the people of Iran while they are surviving a massacre every day. 

In their attempt at digital suppression, they have banned every social media platform including Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and Twitter along with many other applications. The hypocrisy of this act can be displayed by Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, using these platforms himself to spread misinformation and propaganda to his 4.9 million followers. The existence of Ali Khamenei’s Instagram account threatens global peace, freedom, and animal welfare as this is what he often promotes against on his platform. 

We believe in "freedom of speech" however, by Instagram guidelines “freedom of speech” has limits such as “hate speech”, and “spreading of digital disinformation or fake news”. We ask Instagram to take similar action as they did with the banning of Donald Trump. Similar to the reasoning behind why Trump was banned (inability to speak the truth, incitement of violence, etc.), we expect Instagram to permanently ban Ali Khamenei from Instagram. 

Afresh, by allowing Ali Khamenei to freely post on Instagram, Instagram is contributing to the continuation of systematic violation of human rights including oppression of women, child abuse, abuse against the LGBTQ+ community, and money laundering by the regime. 

Iranians are fighting for their freedom, to overthrow the regime and bring democracy to Iran and many other nations in the world. It is expected that META will take action to support human rights and democracy, this time for the freedom of Iran. We, therefore, ask for the ban of Ali Khamenei’s Instagram page as this will get us a step closer to banning the spread of propaganda and the liberation of Iran.