https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2018105361450803662
Instagram has “permanently disabled” the account of Tehran-based independent essayist and documentary photographer Kaveh Rostamkhani, days after he spoke to Drop Site News about the protests, riots, and violence he witnessed in Tehran, and just one day after he published an op-ed with Al Jazeera on disputed death tolls tied to Iran’s January unrest.
In his op-ed for Al Jazeera on January 31, Rostamkhani warned that unverified casualty figures were being used to “manufacture global consent for an attack on Iran” while helping to “downplay the official death toll of the genocide in Gaza.” He described the rush to circulate extreme figures as a “Death Toll Olympics.”
Following the op-ed, Rostamkhani was publicly attacked online by prominent commentators aligned with regime-change advocacy. Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, head of digital at Iran International, a widely watched pro-Israel, pro-monarchist Farsi-language diaspora news outlet, wrote that Rostamkhani “casts doubt on ALL REPORTS” documenting deaths in Iran and accused him of dismissing reporting by major outlets, mischaracterizing his arguments. In the Al Jazeera essay, Rostamkhani wrote instead that “it is undeniable that thousands have been killed in Iran,” while emphasizing the need for rigorous verification of casualty figures.
Rostamkhani told Drop Site News that “there have been numerous fake accounts/bots attacking me ad hominem,” adding that “beside numerous threats of sexualized violence by anonymous accounts, there has also been a threat to defile my late mother’s grave.” He said Sharafedin’s post and separate Instagram posts tagging him “unleashed an orchestrated digital attack.”
The same day, Instagram notified Rostamkhani that his account had been suspended for allegedly violating community standards. He filed an appeal, and on February 1, Instagram informed him the appeal had been rejected and that his account was “permanently disabled.” The notice did not cite any specific post or identify the alleged violation. Drop Site has reached out to Meta for comment.
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