Iran Protests: Instagram Restricts ‘Man and You’ Network Account for Several Hours

Meta, the owner of social media networks Facebook and Instagram, has deleted a large number of posts from the ‘Man and You’ television network on Instagram that covered Iran’s protests, and prevented the publication of new posts and videos on the account.

Hours later, the ‘Man and You’ television network announced that its Instagram account had been restored to normal status.

The ‘Man and You’ television network’s Instagram page, which has approximately 10 million followers, has published multiple photos and videos of the ongoing protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in recent days. However, Meta deleted many of these videos and restricted the network’s Instagram account.

Among the deleted posts was a video in which protesters chanted the slogan “Death to the morality police.” Instagram stated that the video in question violates the social media network’s policies.

Instagram also deleted a video message from Prince Reza Pahlavi to protesters on Tuesday from the ‘Man and You’ page.

Currently, the social networks Telegram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked in Iran, and only Instagram remains accessible to the general Iranian public.

The current protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. Protesters, who are demanding the removal of mandatory hijab laws from Iran’s legal system and the improvement of women’s civil rights, have also targeted the Islamic Republic government as a whole in their slogans.

The management of ‘Man and You’ told Radio Farda that the deletion of the network’s Instagram posts resulted from organized reports.

Meta has previously deleted numerous posts covering protests in Iran in the past, particularly slogans directed against the leaders of the Islamic Republic, including the protest slogan “Death to Khamenei.”

Following the deletion of some posts and accounts of opponents of the Islamic Republic on Instagram and the revelation of a German company’s role in reviewing the network’s content, a former employee of that company said in June of last year that he had been offered money by “Iranian security apparatus” to block certain user accounts.