A Telegram channel that supports Iran-backed militias in Iraq wrote on January 6, 2024 that WhatsApp had recently deleted hundreds of accounts and groups that were using photos of the "commanders of victory" – i.e. IRGC Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Forces deputy chairman Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, who were killed in a U.S. air strike on January 3, 2020.
The channel asked its audience to use blurred photos of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis as their profile pictures on WhatsApp and added that WhatsApp is linked to Facebook.