Following Washington's designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, Instagram and its parent company Facebook started deleting accounts belonging to prominent members of the IRGC last April under the pretext of American sanctions.
Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram have started removing users' posts dedicated to the assassination of Iranian IRGC general Qasem Soleimani, CNN reported citing the social network's spokesperson.
The Facebook representative linked the removal of posts with US sanctions, but didn't elaborate further. In a similar action that saw the Instagram accounts of many IRGC officials removed in April 2019 the company cited the US designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
“We operate under US sanctions laws, including those related to the US government's designation of the IRGC and its leadership”, Facebook stated at the time.
The removal of the posts was first reported by Coda Story on 10 January. The media outlet brought up the examples of Emadeddin Baghi and Bahareh Letnes, whose Soleimani-related posts were removed for violation of Instagram's community guidelines. Baghi posted a photo of the deceased general calling him a “war hero” and expressing hope about a swift US withdrawal from the Middle East in the caption. The post was later removed by Instagram's administration.
Baghi, who is an investigative journalist and known critic of the IRGC, according to the media outlet, wrote in his now…
