Elon Musk-owned Twitter has been praised by a senior Taliban leader, who claimed that its freedom of speech and credibility put it above other social media platforms.
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“Twitter has two important advantages over other social media platforms. The first privilege is the freedom of speech. The second privilege is the public nature & credibility of Twitter. Twitter doesn’t have an intolerant policy like Meta. Other platforms cannot replace it,” tweeted Anas Haqqani on July 10.
Haqqani’s tweet came five days after Meta launched its text-based public conversation app Threads, which has a similar user interface to Twitter. While Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stressed that Threads did not aim to replace Twitter and would not actively court news and politics, the app saw 100 million sign-ups within a week of its launch.
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After Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he removed the free verification blue tick given to significant users and celebrities on the platform. A new Twitter Blue subscription made verification a paid privilege, and resulted in several Taliban leaders, officials, and supporters buying blue ticks, reported BBC. Some of these were later removed and Haqqani’s own Twitter account is not verified. Meanwhile, the Taliban has been banned from Facebook.
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Screenshot of the tweet by Anas Haqqani | Photo Credit: @AnasHaqqani313 on Twitter
A web page affiliated with the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) described Haqqani as a “senior official in the Taliban-controlled government” and noted that the Haqqani network was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the U.S. State Department.
The Taliban has recently adopted social media and several members actively use Twitter. Haqqani tweets in both Pashto and English, often commenting on global news events or sharing messages in support of the Taliban.