Instagram restores Khomeini’s account

The social media photo-sharing site Instagram restored a deleted account set up in memory of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian revolutionary leader who established the Islamic Republic of Iran, after thousands protested the closure, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

The account, emamkhomeini, which Fars said had 100,000 followers, was established by adherents in memory of the deceased leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

However, at the beginning of the week, and just days before commemoration ceremonies scheduled for June 4 in Iran to mark Khomeini’s death in 1989, the account was closed by Instagram.

According to the report, followers sent thousands of messages to Instagram claiming the closure was a blow to freedom of speech and demanding it be restored.

Fars said on Sunday that although Instagram had announced its intention to deactivate the account in an email, it did not give any details as to why the account, which was said to have had 500,000 photos and posts, was deactivated.

Undaunted, Khomeini’s fans quickly set up a replacement account under the username emamKhomeiny.

Instagram does not allow accounts in the name of deceased people, unless they’re registered as memorial accounts.

Fars noted that while an account for Khomeini, a man beloved of “tens of millions,” was removed by Instagram, there were many other accounts, among them “pages belonging to the Takfiri terrorist groups like the ISIL [Islamic State group], which even release images of the beheadings done by them” that remain active.