Instagram censors Iranian support for assassinated nuclear chief – report
This is not the first time Instagram has removed posts supporting an assassinated Iranian official, having done something similar following the assassination of IRGC Quds Force head Qassem Soleimani.
By AARON REICHThe Instagram application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS/THOMAS WHITE)Iranians were reportedly outraged over social media platform Instagram's removal of posts voicing support for Iran's chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh following his assassination on Friday, Iran's semi-official news agency Fars News reported Saturday.According to the report, the popular social network had either deleted the accounts of Iranians supporting the killed scientist, or had just deleted the content.The Jerusalem Post has sent press queries to Instagram's parent company Facebook for confirmation.This is not the first time Instagram has removed posts supporting an assassinated Iranian official. In January, Facebook announced it would remove posts from Instagram supporting assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in order to comply with US sanctions, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to CNN at the time.Iran then had called for legal action against Instagram, which is one of the few Western social media outlets not fully banned in the Islamic Republic, according to CNN.Fakhrizadeh was a senior IRGC officer who headed Iran's nuclear program, and also served as a physics professor at Tehran's Imam Hussein University. Due to his role in having overseen Iran's nuclear weapons program, he was known to Israeli and US officials as the Iranian version of Robert Oppenheimer, who, according to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, was an American theoretical physicist involved with the Manhattan Project often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb."On Friday, however, Fakhrizadeh was shot and killed in Damavand, east of Tehran. Pictures from the scene showed two vehicles, one damaged in an explosion and another riddled with bullets in what appeared like a professional hit.The attack was widely condemned internationally, as well as by Iranian officials, who swore revenge against the US and Israel, blaming them for the assassination.Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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