Twitter Bans Iran Account After Threatening Donald Trump

On Friday, Twitter permanently banned an account that posted threats to Donald Trump.

According to ABC News, some Iranians believe the account is linked to its supreme leader’s office.

The tweet went out late Thursday and included an image of Trump playing golf in the shadow of a large drone. The caption read, “Revenge is certain,”—which was written in Farsi.

A Twitter spokesman told the Associated Press that the account was fake but violated its “manipulation and spam policy.”

The spokesperson did not elaborate on what led them to that conclusion. However, the spokesman did add that the image violated Twitter’s “abusive behavior policy.”

In Iran, the suspect account may be linked to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The belief is based on the fact that the account mirrored that of other accounts identified in state-run media tied to his office.

The account had a link to Khamenei’s website.

The leader’s other account tied to his office, including Khamenei’s leading English language account, remained active. It did not have the golf-drone photo.

Still, the golf-drone picture was reposted on the leader’s website and retweeted on his Farsi language account but was deleted later on.

Facebook and Twitter severed ties with Trump as a user after he was accused of inciting the assault on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol. The news outlet said activists called on companies to apply the same rules to other political figures worldwide to prevent hate speech and content that may provoke violence.

Last month Khamenei gave a speech, while not mentioning Donald Trump’s name, warning that there would be vengeance against those that ordered and executed the attack that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

“Revenge will certainly happen at the right time,” Khamenei had declared.