--- description: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called out Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to crticize Iran's official ban on using Tiwtter title: Twitter Chief Dick Costolo Trolls Iranian President Hassan Rouhani image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb6d81bfec6ed8/6986a57a06f2c16f20330f12/dick-costolo-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Iran](/tag/iran/) ## Iran Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Twitter Chief Trolls Iranian President on Twitter by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 25, 2014 5:56 PM CUT  Twitter CEO Dick Costolo speaks during the Brand Matters keynote address at the 2014 International CES at The Las Vegas Hotel and Casino on Jan. 8, 2014 in Las Vegas. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo speaks during the Brand Matters keynote address at the 2014 International CES at The Las Vegas Hotel and Casino on Jan. 8, 2014 in Las Vegas.Ethan Miller—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 25, 2014 5:56 PM CUT Dick Costolo, the CEO of Twitter, has a bone to pick with Iran: you can’t use Twitter there. And on Thursday, Costolo tweeted at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani—currently in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly—with a Twitter burn for the ages: > [](https://twitter.com/dickc/status/515189698382528512) With access to Twitter and Facebook officially banned in the Islamic Republic, Iranians have to find other ways to bypass the state’s Internet filtering system. That’s if they’re not the country’s president, who is a prolific tweeter and apparently has unfettered access to the social network. But Costolo’s tweet isn’t just a muted form of digital social activism; it’s a pragmatic defense of his company’s business interests in Iran. Rouhani doesn’t appear to have responded yet to Costolo’s tweet, which may be because it’s just too hard to come back from a tweet like that. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3430613/twitter-dick-costolo-hassan-rouhani/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3430613/twitter-dick-costolo-hassan-rouhani/"},"headline":"Twitter Chief Trolls Iranian President on Twitter","datePublished":"2014-09-25T17:56:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:15.088Z","description":"Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called out Hassan Rouhani over Iran's official Twitter ban","url":"https://time.com/3430613/twitter-dick-costolo-hassan-rouhani/","keywords":["Iran","Tech","Social Media"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb6d81bfec6ed8/6986a57a06f2c16f20330f12/dick-costolo-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8eb6d81bfec6ed8/6986a57a06f2c16f20330f12/dick-costolo-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Newest Innovations In Consumer Technology On Display At 2014 International CES","caption":"Newest Innovations In Consumer Technology On Display At 2014 International CES","creditText":"Ethan Miller—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iran/","name":"Iran"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3430613/twitter-dick-costolo-hassan-rouhani/","name":"Twitter Chief Trolls Iranian President on Twitter"}}]}] ```