X removes blue check from Iran's Mojtaba Khamenei account amid sanctions scrutiny

A social media dispute tied to Iran’s leadership and U.S. sanctions has resurfaced on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The official X account of Iran’s self-styled new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, no longer displays the paid “blue check” verification badge that marks paid subscribers. The change was observed on the 13th of the month, local time.

U.S. sanctions watchdogs had raised concerns that affording a blue-check badge to sanctioned Iranian officials could run afoul of sanctions prohibitions that bar certain types of transactions with Tehran. The removal of the badge from Khamenei’s account appears to be X’s response to those concerns, occurring just one day after the dispute drew attention.

The blue check on X is tied to a paid subscription that, among other benefits, gives subscribers longer posts, higher‑quality video, and preferential ranking in search results. Such incentives are intended to boost visibility, but they also raise questions about how social platforms monetize access to officials subject to U.S. sanctions.

X has previously removed blue-checks from Iranian officials after similar scrutiny, indicating a pattern of reining in the feature when it intersects with sanctions and messaging accuracy. In the current episode, a U.S. nonprofit watchdog, the Tech Transparency Project, argued that allowing a sanctioned individual to retain the badge could violate U.S. law and policy.

Separately, the European Union has also taken an interest in how X handles paid verification. An EU Commission spokesperson said the company submitted a remedy proposal about the blue-check system and that officials would evaluate it carefully, though concrete details were not disclosed. The EU has a history of penalizing social platforms over similar issues related to verification and user deception.

Last year the EU fined X about 120 million euros (roughly 2,000 billion won) for changes to the blue-check policy under Musk’s ownership, which EU regulators argued could mislead users into believing the verified accounts were authentic representatives of public figures or institutions. The current developments show ongoing regulatory scrutiny of how paid verification interacts with sensitive accounts and sanctions regimes.

Why this matters for U.S. readers: sanctions enforcement is a core tool of American foreign policy toward Iran, and tech platforms play a key role in how those sanctions are implemented in practice. The case illustrates how private platforms’ monetization features can create legal and regulatory risk when they involve sanctioned individuals. It also highlights cross‑border regulatory leverage—U.S. policy, NGO oversight, and EU rules all influence how major social networks operate globally, with potential implications for information integrity, digital diplomacy, and cyber security in the transatlantic arena.