Twitter has been accused of double standards this afternoon after the platform suspended the account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for posting an image of a drone targeting a Donald Trump lookalike. The accompanying text roughly translated to “Revenge is inevitable. Soleimani’s killer and the one who ordered Soleimani’s murder must face justice.” Twitter allowed the post to remain online for 17 hours before taking action. Even then, it only suspended the account. All of the responses to the tweet remain visible. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been inundated with Tweets from users asking why Trump was permanently banned for allegedly inciting a riot, while Khamenei has only been slapped on the wrist for clearly calling for Trump to be assassinated. 
Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by a drone strike in January last year. It was contemptible and totally illegal, even under US law. The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Eliot Engel condemned it utterly. Agnes Callamard, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, stated that the Soleimani’s killing could have been justified under international law only if it had been a response to an “imminent threat.” However, she said that the United States had provided no evidence to support that contention. Iran has every right to want justice, not that I support the call for Trump to be murdered. Of course I don’t.
Last week, Twitter removed a post by Khamenei in which he said that U.S. and British-made vaccines were unreliable and may be intended to “contaminate other nations.” Twitter in particular has of late, become very fond of deleting posts, suspending and banning accounts hasn’t it? To keep the peace, it may very well delete Khamenei’s account or accounts. He has a few. We’ve landed on Planet Dystopia when the leaders of nations can be censored by a Silicon Valley Geek.
