Elon Musk’s X Appears to Be Violating US Sanctions by Selling Premium Accounts to Iranian Leaders
In recent weeks, Elon Musk has followed President Donald Trump’s lead, lambasting Iranian government officials and supporting the thousands of protesters attacking the regime. It even provided free access to its Starlink satellites amid a nationwide internet outage.
But while publicly proclaiming support for protesters, Musk’s Company
TTP identified more than two dozen Premium, which is the only way to receive a blue checkmark, costs $8 per month, while a Premium+ subscription, which removes ads and further increases reach, costs $40 per month.
As the Trump administration threatens Iran with possible military action if it does not meet demands related to nuclear enrichment and ballistic missiles,
“The fact that Elon Musk is not just offering a platform to these individuals, but is taking their money to boost their content through these premium subscriptions and give them additional features also means that he is undermining the sanctions that the United States and the Trump administration are currently implementing,” Katie Paul, director of TTP, told WIRED.
X did not respond to a request for comment, but hours after WIRED reported on several X accounts belonging to Iranian officials, their blue checkmarks were removed. The rest of the accounts identified by TTP but not shared with X continue to display a blue check mark.
The White House directed WIRED to Treasury when asked for comment. A Treasury spokesperson said it was not commenting on specific allegations but “would need to[s] The allegations of sanctionable conduct are extremely serious.
Protests broke out in the Iranian capital Tehran on December 28 against the continued devaluation of the Iranian rial against the dollar and the widespread economic crisis in the country. Over the next few days, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across the country, calling for regime change and an end to the 37-year rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In response, the regime brutally cracked down on protesters, arresting tens of thousands and killing thousands more. The actual number of deaths is still unknown but could be much higher than currently reported.
Trump showed his support for the protesters in a post on Truth Social on January 2, promising to come to their aid. “We are locked, loaded and ready to go,” he wrote. Musk quickly followed Trump, calling Khamenei “delusional.”
On January 5, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, who at the time wore a blue checkmark, wrote in a message on X: “This time we will show no mercy to the rioters. » Ejei was among the accounts whose blue checkmarks were removed Wednesday after WIRED contacted the company.
A few days later, X replaced the Iranian flag emoji on the platform with the one used before the 1979 revolution, depicting a lion and a sun. On January 14, Musk announced that anyone with a Starlink device would be free to access the internet in Iran without a subscription. At the time, Starlink devices were the only viable way to get online after the government imposed a near-total internet blackout.
