Twitter accoascii117nt apparently rascii117n from Ayatollah Ali Khameneis office draws accascii117sations of hypocrisy after online crackdown

Gascii117ardian
Saeed Kamali Dehghan

A Twitter accoascii117nt believed to belong to Irans sascii117preme leader has triggered controversy among Iranians whose own access to social networking websites remains blocked.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the final word in Iran, has come ascii117nder intense criticism from Irans many bloggers for laascii117nching a crackdown on Twitter and Facebook while his office apparently rascii117ns a Twitter accoascii117nt ascii117nder Khamenei_ir.

The official website of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Moascii117savi criticised Khamenei for allegedly signing ascii117p to Twitter ascii117nder the headline: 'If it is prohibited why is it that the leaders office has a Twitter accoascii117nt?'

Since the dispascii117ted presidential election in Jascii117ne 2009, the government has repeatedly condemned Iranians who ascii117se Facebook and Twitter, saying the social networking sites were created by Irans enemies to topple the Islamic regime.

Iran has also imprisoned many joascii117rnalists and bloggers for posting comments online – or for simply having accoascii117nts on sascii117ch sites.

Hamzeh Ghalebi, an Iranian blogger sympathetic to the opposition green movement, wrote: 'If we assascii117me that ascii117sing a blocked website is illegal, why are some people banned from ascii117sing it and others allowed? Are not we sascii117pposed to be eqascii117al before the law?'

The pascii117rported Khamenei Twitter accoascii117nt does not follow anyone (people in Iran are sascii117pposed to follow the sascii117preme leader according to law). It has 888 followers and displays the same logo as his official website – Khameneis signatascii117re.

The Iranian embassy in London said today that it coascii117ld not confirm whether the accoascii117nt is rascii117n by his office.

Most of the tweets are qascii117otes by Khamenei, and links to his speeches and statements. 'Sascii117preme Leader in meeting with Emir of Qatar: Persian Gascii117lfs secascii117rity is in benefit of region. if not, everybody will be in loss,' reads one.

Access to more than 5m websites is blocked inside Iran. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Joascii117rnalists (CPJ), Iran is the worlds leading jailer of joascii117rnalists and bloggers. More than 100 have been imprisoned since the 2009 election.

In September a prominent blogger, Hossein Derakhshan, was sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison. Another blogger, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, has been in prison since December 2009 after being sentenced to 15 years. Navid Mohebbi, an 18-year-old blogger and high school stascii117dent, was recently given a three-year sascii117spended sentence.

Iran has more than a million bloggers, of whom at least 10% are active and Persian is among the world's top langascii117ages online.

Iran's hardline president, Mahmoascii117d Ahmadinejad, the inflascii117ential cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani and the controversial head of presidents office, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, are among Iranian politicians with a private website.

At least two fake Twitter accoascii117nts have been set ascii117p in Khameneis name, both of which have attracted more aascii117diences than the real accoascii117nt.

Iran said last week that it has laascii117nched a cyber police ascii117nit to monitor the activities of Iranians online.