Instagram has closed the account of an Iranian personality close to Khamenei

Instagram, a social networking site owned by Facebook, has shut down the account of radical Iranian cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda.

Alamolhoda is the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the northeastern city of Mashhad and a member of the Assembly of Experts of the Iranian leadership. 

His daughter is also married to hard-line presidential candidate and head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi.

According to the official website of the Iranian cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda, “Instagram has closed the personal account of Khamenei’s representative in the city of Mashhad after deleting several leaflets for him.”

“Instagram on Wednesday removed several leaflets related to the death of radical cleric Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi and several others from the Alamolhoda page, and his account was banned,” the website said.

Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi Rouhani died last January.

Ahmed Alamolhoda is a cleric known for his radical and controversial views and is a fierce critic of internet freedom and social networking.

Despite strong criticism of “vulgarity” on social media platforms, Iranian regime officials are active in social networks and use the tool primarily for government propaganda.

According to Alamolhoda, several of its Instagram posts have already been deleted in connection with the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, as well as the Resistance Front.

The report says that the content removed from its Instagram website today has nothing to do with the Resistance Front.

“The Axis of Resistance is a term used to describe a range of armed groups allied with the Iranian regime in the region, including Hezbollah militias in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization.”

The Iranian authorities have been blocking social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, since 2009 after a wave of mass protests led by the reformist opposition. Telegram was blocked in April 2018 following mass protests.

Instagram is the most popular platform among Iranians because it is not blocked despite censorship. It has 47 million users in Iran.