Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has launched his own Facebook page, despite social media sites being banned in the country.
The self-styled ‘God’s representative on earth’ joined Facebook on December 13 and has already amassed more than18,000 ‘likes’, to add to his collection of almost 8,000 followers on Twitter.
HumanIPO reported last week that Pope Benedict XVI had joined the Twittersphere. The Roman Catholic leader has proved a smash hit on the site and already has more than 1.2 million followers.
The 73-year-old Khamenei’s office has not confirmed the legitimacy of the page, but Iranian media have said the account is run by his office.
More than five million websites are blocked in Iran, with a message appearing that reads: “Access to the website is denied according to [Iran’s] computer crimes regulations.”
The use of proxy servers or virtual private network (VPN) services are used by many Iranians to access the forbidden content however.
