Twitter bars Iranian state accounts over harassment of Bahai minority
Twitter has suspended several accounts of Iranian state news outlets over harassment of followers of the Bahai faith.
The state-run news agency IRNA, Mehr, Irib, and the Young Journalists Club were among those suspended on Saturday, the social media service confirmed yesterday.
“We have suspended a series of accounts for multi-account abuse and other forms of platform manipulation.
“These accounts were engaging in co-ordinated and targeted harassment of people associated with the Bahai faith,” a source at Twitter told The National.
The source did not name the suspended accounts but said it would continue to investigate the matter.
Bahai, an offshoot of Islam, originated in Iran 150 years ago.
The sect claims to have about five million members worldwide.
Several hundred thousand of them live in Iran, where Tehran’s religious leaders consider the faith heretical.
Bahais say hundreds of followers have been jailed or executed since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. But speculations arose that the account suspensions were linked to the agencies coverage of Iran seizing a Britishflagged tanker in Omani territorial waters on Friday.
“Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules,” said a message on each of the Iranian media outlets’ accounts.
Mehr news agency said on its English-language website that it did not know the official reasons for Twitter’s actions.
The agency said its Mehr Diplomacy account, which publishes analysis and interviews on foreign policy, was also offline.
The YJC criticised the suspension, saying the agencies affected “had no other purpose than the publication of news and information”.
On its website, the YJC said: “Since last night and after seizure of a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz the account of the Young Journalists’ Club and some other users have been suspended.”
The club said that accounts of “other Iranian users” were also blocked.
Iranian hard-line speaker Ali Akbar Raefipoor’s account is offline.
Although Twitter is blocked in Iran, users can gain access to the website by using a virtual private network.