Over 100,000 people called on the owners of Twitter to block Ayatollah Khamenei’s account. The petition states: “The Ayatollah regime filtered the Internet for the public, and banned Twitter in some places, but the Ayatollah himself uses the platform to spread violence”
Over a hundred thousand people called on Twitter owner Elon Musk to block the account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “This is a person who regularly violates American law, finances, supports and carries out terrorist acts around the world (through Hezbollah) Elon, please act” the petition said .
The full petition language:
Dear Elon Musk
For 43 years, the Islamic regime in Iran, led by Ayatollah Khamenei, has been responsible for the brutal and systematic persecution of his people, torturing and killing citizens who oppose the regime. The Islamic regime oversaw the funding and arming of violent terrorist organizations in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza, and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews throughout the region.
Inside Iran, the Ayatollah is in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which is a terrorist organization, the morality police that routinely harass and arrest women for not wearing the hijab, the morality police, along with countless other entities associated with the Iranian regime, under US sanctions, Canada and the European Union.
When it comes to technology, the Ayatollah regime has censored the internet for its public, banning social media platforms such as Twitter, but the Ayatollah himself uses the platform to spread blatant calls for violence which are then carried out by proxy forces, as well as Holocaust denial and other forms of conspiratorial hatred. Unfortunately, these are not just the words of a random Twitter user, but calls to action from a world leader. The Ayatollah oversees the forces of the Islamic regime, including cyber forces, they use bots to harass activists who speak out against the regime outside of Iran. This is a complete violation of Twitter’s policy.
In addition, while calling for harm to the US and Israel on a regular basis on Twitter, the Ayatollah uses an American social media platform that aims to provide free speech to the public, to spread speech that would be considered illegal in any American court. In doing so, Twitter allows itself to be used as a tool of the Revolutionary Guards, Twitter gives A place for an organization designated by the US as a terrorist organization.
We, the undersigned, Twitter users from all over the world call for one action: the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei from Twitter. Any leader who bans a platform for his own citizens should not be using that platform as a tool to promote anti-Semitism, violence and extremism – especially one that leads directly to violence against innocent people.