Updated Thu, Mar 12 2026 5:01 PM EDT Khamenei was selected as Iran's supreme leader earlier this week to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike on the first day of the war, Feb. 28. Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, blasted the fact that Mojtaba Khamenei had been allowed an X account. TTP in February released a report that found there were X accounts in the names of Iranian officials, agencies and government-run media outlets that had a blue check mark, which indicates they were customers of X's premium service. "For the past three years the Tech Transparency Project has repeatedly highlighted how X is profiting from providing premium subscriptions to US sanctioned entities — many linked to terrorism — in apparent violation of US sanctions law," Paul told CNBC in an email. "Now it's happening with the sanctioned leader of a country the US is actively engaged in war with," Paul said. Musk's space exploration company SpaceX, which owns X and the artificial intelligence company xAI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mojtaba Khamenei's new account on the social network. The account has a blue check mark reserved for "premium" users. — CNBC's Matt Peterson contributed to this article.