TEHRAN – The U.S. government's move to put pressure on companies to censor Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani on social media is out of misery, Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, Minister of Information and Communications Technology has said.

Soleimani, the IRGC Quds Force commander, was martyred in a U.S. terrorist assault in Baghdad on January 3.

“America’s action shows its misfortune, as Iran is powerful on social media. The on-going presence of people on social networks with tens of millions of posts has echoed the U.S. terrorism in the world,” Azari-Jahromi stated.

After the cruel assassination of Iranian top commander, people flooded the social networks, sharing posts commemorating the martyr, however, Instagram removed all their posts.

“In an undemocratic and scandalous move, Instagram has removed the voice of innocence of the nation,” Government Spokesman Ali Rabiei wrote in a post on his Twitter account on Monday.

The U.S. airstrike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU). Both Soleimani and Muhandis were popular figureheads in helping squelch an ominous rise of Daesh which once came as close as 30 km to Baghdad.

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