Twitter Suspends accounts of the Iranian opposition group based in the United States, supporters

Twitter suspended the accounts of a prominent U.S .- based Iranian opposition group and several of its backers for suspected violations of the rules of the business, marking the latest Twitter involvement in a bitter online dispute between critics and supporters of the Iranian government.

The Iranian American Communities Organization(www.twitter.com/OrgIAC) page, a non-profit group that supports what it terms the “struggle for democratic change” of the Iranian people and a “non-nuclear state,” was suspended on Wednesday and remained blocked a day later. Before the suspension, it had more than 6,000 fans.

OIAC was removed from Twitter just as it started hosting a briefing on Wednesday at the Dirksen Senate Building in Washington to address what it called an “increase in Tehran’s domestic repression and global violence.” Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Boozman attended the event.

OIAC is affiliated with the exiled Iranian dissident movement Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), heading the National Resistance Council of Iran (NCRI) based in France, and supporting the “overthrow of religious dictatorship” in Iran. Since its Islamic Revolution in 1979, Islamist clerics have led the nation.