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Twitter chief Dick Costolo trolls Iran’s President Rouhani

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TIME
TIME
and
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
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By
TIME
TIME
and
Ben Geier
Ben Geier
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September 25, 2014, 2:20 PM ET
United Nations Hosts World Leaders For Annual General Assembly
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 25: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2014 in New York City. The annual event brings political leaders from around the globe together to report on issues, meet and look for solutions. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)Photo by John Moore—Getty Images

This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com.

By Sam Frizell, TIME

Dick Costolo, the CEO of Twitter, has a bone to pick with Iran: you can’t use Twitter (TWTR) 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:

.@HassanRouhani Mr. President, enjoying your Tweets from the UN. We would love the Iranian people to enjoy them as well. When will that be?

— dick costolo (@dickc) September 25, 2014

With access to Twitter and Facebook (FB) 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.

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