Why Twitter Allows The Taliban To Maintain Accounts On Its Platform

Twitter Inc. TWTR has announced that that Taliban spokesmen will be able to maintain accounts on its social media platform as long as they abide by the terms of service and do not use their tweets to advocate violence.

What Happened: Mediaite reported that Twitter gave the Taliban a green light to keep tweeting while noting the social media site would “continue to proactively enforce” its rules on the “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”

“Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant,” said the company in a statement. The company also observed the unfolding story in Afghanistan and said it was “witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance” – although it didn’t mention the Afghans in question were seeking help and assistance to escape from the Taliban.

Among the Taliban spokesmen who have accounts on Twitter are Suhail Shaheen with 360,000 followers, Zabihullah Mujahid with 318,000 followers, Dr. M. Naeem with 213,000 followers and Qari Yousaf Ahmadi with 65,000 followers.

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What Else Happened: Twitter stands out from rival social media sites Facebook FB and Alphabet’s GOOG YouTube, which has banned Taliban content from their respective platforms.

The presence of the Taliban on Twitter raised questions from some Republican politicians on how the Taliban can be welcomed, while former President Donald Trump is banned from the site. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) tweeted, “Why on God’s green Earth does the Taliban spokesman have an active Twitter account but not the former President of the United States? Who’s [sic] side is the AMERICA BASED Big-Tech companies on?”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) echoed Cawthorn’s observation while adding, “My account is search-banned and I have Congressional colleagues who are regularly suspended from the service. Something is very wrong here.”

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Photo: Newsonline / Flickr Creative Commons.