Twitter has refused to ban the Taliban from its platform, saying it will monitor content to ensure there are no messages that “glorify violence.”
Taliban Spokesperson Twitter Account – Screenshot.
This move is in stark contrast to other Big Tech competitors. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram (all owned by Facebook), TikTok, and YouTube have all banned and terminated accounts that are associated with, promote or glorify the Taliban.
Twitter said in a statement that it will “continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter’s rules, specifically policies against the glorification of violence.” force, platform manipulation and spam.”
Meanwhile, Twitter itself used this justification to permanently ban former President Donald Trump after the chaos at the Capitol on January 6. Many other conservatives have also been banned from the platform.
Defending its decision to allow accounts linked to the Taliban to remain active, Twitter said that Afghans are using the platform to seek help and seek asylum.
Two Taliban spokespeople, Suhail Shaehee and Zabihullah Mujahid, have more than 351,000 and 310,000 followers on Twitter, respectively. Their account has been active for many years.
Twitter’s “double standard” behavior has drawn criticism from many Trump supporters and other conservatives.
On Tuesday, Congressman Doug Lamborn sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressing concern about members of the Taliban being allowed to use the platform to spread their messages.
“Why does Twitter allow two Taliban spokespeople to operate but restrict former President Trump’s First Amendment rights? Enough to hold #BigTech accountable,” he tweeted.
In his letter, Mr Lamborn made it clear that the Taliban belonged to a “violent type of organization.”
“During my review of these accounts, I did not find any fact-check warnings about any of their tweets, nor any warnings about false or misleading content. misleading,” Lamborn wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Dorsey.
“These propaganda updates often assert that the overthrow was largely peaceful, despite reports to the contrary.”
‘Why on God’s Green Earth should a spokesperson for the Taliban operate a Twitter account and not be the former President of the United States? Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican, asked the question.
“Whose side are the big tech companies in the US on?” he added.
“The Taliban spokesman has a Twitter account without any problems. Meanwhile, President Trump is banned from the platform,” tweeted Representative Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican. “There is something very unusual here.”
Even Twitter’s behavior has angered CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan, who has supported the ban on Trump. “The former President of the United States is banned on Twitter but the Taliban are not. Whether you agree with this or not, there are clearly some big holes in company policy,” he said.
“They [Twitter] let the leaders of Iran, the CCP, all of our enemies tweet non-stop, and they see patriotic Americans as a bigger threat,” said a source close to the matter. with Mr. Trump told Fox News.
“They’re out of control, they don’t believe in the First Amendment, and that’s why President Trump is suing them to protect our fundamental rights as a republic.”
The former President filed a class-action lawsuit against Twitter, Google and Facebook last month.
During the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, insurgents married girls as young as 12 years old and forced them into sex slaves as “booty”, while killing many soldiers in the army. Afghanistan.
