The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the blue and gold checkmarks from the verified accounts of Press TV and other Iranian media outlets.
The move came on Wednesday after a report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, said that X is providing premium, paid services to more than a dozen accounts belonging to individuals and groups sanctioned by the US government.
The list included the accounts of Iran’s English-, Arabic- and Spanish-language news channels Press TV, Al-Alam and Hispan TV, as well as those of Tasnim News Agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Mizan, and PadDolat, the official information website for the Iranian government.
The accounts of Russian NTV state-owned television station, and Tinkoff Bank, a commercial bank in Moscow, were also mentioned in the report, along with those belonging to Yemen’s Ansarullah and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance groups.
“The fact that X requires users to pay a monthly or annual fee for premium service suggests that X is engaging in financial transactions with these accounts, a potential violation of US sanctions,” the report claimed.
In a statement, X said, “Our teams have reviewed the report and will take action if necessary.”
The removal of the X accounts’ verified badges comes at a time when the Israeli lobby has mounted pressure on the media exposing Israeli crimes in its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 28,576 Palestinians in more than four months, showing that X owner Elon Musk has succumbed to the Israeli pressure.
With nearly 329,000 followers, the @PressTV account was created in September 2010 and verified in August 2016. It has a gold checkmark.
Palestine Declassified, an English-language show on Press TV, also had the X account @PDeclassified with a blue checkmark. It was created in January 2022, verified in April 2023, and featured ads in the replies to its posts.
