Instagram takes down Khomeini’s account

The social media photo-sharing site Instagram blocked an account set up in memory of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian revolutionary leader who established the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to a Sunday report from Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

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

Just days before commemoration ceremonies scheduled for June 4 in Iran — to mark Khomeini’s death in 1989 — the account was closed by the operators of Instagram.

Although the Fars report said that 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.

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

Those behind the account tried contacting Instagram to protest the move but received only “false excuses,” the report said, without giving any further details.

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.

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