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Taliban leader praises Twitter
A senior Taliban leader, Anas Haqqani, praised Elon Musk-owned Twitter for its freedom of speech and credibility. Haqqani also said Twitter doesn’t have an intolerant policy like Meta.
The tweet from Haqqani came five days after Meta launched its text-based public conversation app, Threads, which has a similar 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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Meta to label govt-affiliated accounts
Meta plans to label government-affiliated accounts on its Twitter-like platform, Threads, an executive told an Australian inquiry on foreign interference. “Areas such as labels for state-affiliated media and fact-checking are all areas where we see a lot of value, and it’s our aspiration to build that out expeditiously,” Josh Machin, Meta’s head of public policy told the Senate inquiry.
The disclosure comes less than a week after Meta launched Threads. While Twitter has removed tags from government-affiliated accounts since Elon Musk took it private in 2022, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms already have tags on the RT and Xinhua accounts noting they are state-controlled media from Russia and China, respectively.
Apple opens store on WeChat
Apple opened a store on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that also provides e-commerce, live streaming, and payment services. In an announcement, Tencent the parent company of WeChat said users would be able to buy Apple products including iPhones, iPads, and Macs from the store.
The move from Apple comes as Chinese consumers increasingly turn to social media platforms such as WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to shop.