Twitter suspends Iranian news accounts over harassment of Baha'is

It was originally speculated that the accounts had been suspended in connection with the current tensions between Iran and the West.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT Twitter (photo credit: REUTERS)
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANT Twitter
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Twitter suspended several twitter accounts of Iranian news agencies, over the alleged harassment of people of the Baha'i faith.
It was originally speculated that the accounts had been suspended in connection with the current tensions between Iran and the West, which have escalated after Iran seized a British tanker in the Straits of Hormuz last week. However, Twitter confirmed on Sunday that the suspensions were due to harassment of Baha'is.
State broadcaster IRIB's Young Journalist club, state-run IRNA, and Mehr News Agency were among the accounts suspended on Saturday.
All of these accounts are Farsi-based, whilst several English-language accounts, such as Fars News and Press TV remained active.
"Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules," read the message on the page of those accounts affected.
Twitter sources confirmed that the suspensions were actually due to the coordinated and targeted harassment of Baha'i people, which is a minority religion in Iran.
Twitter is actually officially banned in Iran, but many government officials and agencies still have accounts by virtue of a VPN, bypassing censorship.
Estimates for the current population of Bahai's still in Iran vary between 150,000 and 500,000,people of the Baha'i faith still living in Iran. Members of the Baha'i faith have suffered decades of persecution under the Islamist Iranian government.