Just two weeks after social media giant Twitter said it was going to start removing posts that deny the Holocaust, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tested its new policy Wednesday.
Following the republication of caricatures displaying the Prophet Mohammed by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which in turn sparked renewed outrage throughout the Muslim world, Khamenei took to Twitter, equating insults against the prophet to Holocaust denial.
“The next question to ask is: why is it a crime to raise doubts about the Holocaust? Why should anyone who writes about such doubts be imprisoned while insulting the Prophet [pbuh] is allowed?” the Iranian leader tweeted.
Khamenei was referring to laws in certain countries, Germany for example, which forbid Holocaust denial.
Twitter and its founder and CEO Jack Dorsey have come under fire on more than a few occasions over its alleged discriminatory banning and flagging policies.
On August 1, the White House slammed Twitter for allowing Khamenei tweets go uncensored while deleting a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump in August, which downplayed the American death toll in the pandemic.
“It’s really appalling and it just speaks to their overwhelming, blinding bias against conservatives and against this president,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.
Iran has come under widespread criticism for its International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, held in 2006 and revived in 2015, which it said was a response to the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in Danish and French publications.
The Islamic Republic is also among countries that have seen the rise of conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the spread of coronavirus.
Reprinted courtesy of i24NEWS