Twitter: Iran Leader’s tweets on Israel don’t violate rules

Ylwa Pettersson, Twitter’s head policy for the Nordic countries and Israel, made the comments while speaking to the Israeli Knesset’s committee for immigration, absorption and diaspora affairs via videoconference.

“We have an approach toward leaders that says that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on military-economic issues are generally not in violation of our rules,” she said, Press TV reported on Thursday.

She was responding to a question by pro-Israel activist Arsen Ostrovsky, who had asked why Twitter attached a special label to a recent tweet by US President Donald Trump noting that it violated the company’s rules, while Ayatollah Khamenei’s tweets against Israel are left untouched.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s office has, on many occasions, posted tweets, censuring Israel for its crimes, including appropriating Palestinian lands, and disregarding international law.

The Leader has also urged the elimination of Israel from the occupied Palestinian land; however, Israel as well as its Western allies have been using propaganda to suggest that Iran wants the elimination of Jews.

Ayatollah Khamenei has clearly differentiated between the “elimination” of the Zionist entity and what has been promoted by the West as Iran’s ill-intention toward Jews.

“Eliminating the Zionist regime doesn’t mean eliminating Jews. We aren’t against Jews. It means abolishing the imposed regime & Muslim, Christian & Jewish Palestinians choose their own govt & expel thugs like Netanyahu. This is “Eliminating Israel” & it will happen,” the Leader’s office said in a tweet in May 2020.

Last month, Twitter for the first time flagged two of Trump's tweets for misinformation about the riots that broke out in the US following the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd.

In a tweet on May 29, Trump called protesters in Minneapolis “thugs” and vowed that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” after protesters outraged by the police killing of the handcuffed black man torched a police station.

“If a world leader violates our rules but there is a clear interest in keeping that up on the service we may place it behind a notice that provides some more context about the violation and allows people to click through if they wish to see that type of content,” Pettersson said.

“That’s what happened for the Trump tweet: That tweet was violating our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line of that tweet and the risk that it could possibly inspire harm and similar actions.”