Four Republican senators argued in a Feb. 6 letter to Twitter that the social media platform is in violation of the Trump administration’s sanctions against Iran if it doesn’t remove Iranian leaders from the website.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote that President Donald Trump’s June executive order prohibits U.S. companies from providing services to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and anyone who acts on Khamenei’s behalf, such Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“The Supreme Leader’s English language account, @khamenei_ir, has had tweets removed for advocating murder,” the senators wrote.
The four senators also pointed out that the First Amendment does not apply to Khamenei and his acolytes.
“As the leader of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of U.S. citizens — the Ayatollah and any American companies providing him assistance are entirely subject to U.S. sanction laws,” they wrote. “A Twitter account is a service.”
Axios reported that Twitter representatives declined to comment on the matter.
In November, Twitter removed accounts affiliated with Hamas and Hezbollah’s television station. A Twitter spokesperson told Agence-France Presse at the time, “There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups.” Iran provides funding to Hamas and Hezbollah.
However, a 2018 Twitter blog post noted it would never remove a world leader from its website because doing so “would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.”
