Iran may be trying to set up a nationwide “halal” intranet that’s cut off from the rest of the world, but damned if the country’s supreme leader will let those restrictions keep him from playing Farmville.
Yes, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei now appears to be on Facebook. Not to be outdone by the Pope joining Twitter, Khamenei’s new account was promoted Saturday with a tweet linking to the new profile:
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) December 15, 2012
The @khamenei_ir handle is thought to be run directly by the Iranian government. Like that one, Khamenei’s Facebook profile bears the Supreme Leader’s official seal and follows the same username style (khamenei [punctuation] ir) that defines his presence on other social media outlets.
Back in August, Khamenei launched an Instagram account. So far, he’s got more than 1,000 followers there and has 18 photos to his name. In recent days, it seems he’s discovered the tilt-shift function.
But any social media user worth her salt is on Facebook. In some ways, Khamenei is nearly a decade behind the trend. Until he starts dropping hints about his holiday wishlist on Pinterest, color me unimpressed.
This originally appeared on The Atlantic. Also on our sister site:
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