Conservative MPs have this week called on Twitter to review the account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over repeated antisemitic comments.
In an exchange with Nick Pickles, Twitter’s Global Head of Public Policy Strategy and Development, Tim Loughton MP quoted Khamenei’s tweet describing Israel as a “malignant cancerous tumour… that has to be removed and eradicated”.
He said that Twitter has “done nothing to vet any of his tweets which do appear to be exalting violence against an entire nation”.
Mr Pickles said he would review the tweet in question.
Twitter suspended one of the Ayatollah’s accounts on Friday but the main account routinely threatening the destruction of Israel remains.
Twitter’s decision to ban former US President Trump’s account has triggered debate over whether social media sites are publishers or platforms for speech.
Foreign Affairs Committee member Bob Seely MP said it would “become very difficult to argue that they’re not publishers if they’re allowing the Ayatollahs to threaten the existence of Israel”.
