One day after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Instagram deleted the accounts of many current and former IRGC commanders and a few related pages.

According to the reports, the first account to be deleted belonged to Qasem Soleimani, the commander of IRGC’s Quds (Jerusalem) Force, which is the international arm of the IRGC. After that, at least 14 pages and profiles related to IRGC were deleted.

Among these deleted accounts and pages are the accounts of Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander in chief of IRGC, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of IRGC ground forces, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former IRGC commander and current member of Expediency Discernment Council, and Saeed Ghasemi, a former commander in IRGC. The English account of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic has also been deleted.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is not blocked in Iran. It has millions of users and many officials and organizations are members of this social media.

Instagram belongs to Facebook, and it is based in the United States and follows American laws.

After Instagram deleted the accounts of IRGC commanders, the discussion over filtering of Instagram was raised once again. The cyber affairs deputy of the attorney general said: “If the government doesn’t do anything, there is no other option but to filter Instagram.”

He added: Instagram must transfer all of its data banks to Iran and has to agree to abide by Islamic Republic’s laws, “otherwise they will not receive permission.”