Trump Calls Out Twitter For Banning Him But Allowing The Taliban
Published
Donald Trump has slammed Twitter for allowing the Taliban on the social media platform but banning him.
The former US president was indefinitely banned from the social media platform following the deadly Capitol riots, which left five people dead, ‘due to the risk of further incitement of violence’.
While he’s still not allowed back on Twitter, the company recently became the subject of controversy amid the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, saying it won’t ban posts from the militant group but will ensure they abide by its community guidelines.
Trump recently criticised Twitter during an interview with Newsmax‘s Greg Kelly. ‘It’s disgraceful when you think that you have killers and muggers and dictators and horrible – some horrible dictators and countries, and they’re all on but the president of the United States, who had hundreds of millions of people, by the way, he gets taken off,’ he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has been posting regular updates regarding the insurgents ever since its earlier advances, later capturing Kabul on August 15. His account is unverified, but it has nearly 330,000 followers. Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, another Taliban spokesman, has more than 67,000 followers.
Twitter released a statement regarding the Taliban’s presence on the platform, but hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s complaints.
‘The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving. We’re also witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance. Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant. We will continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter Rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam,’ it reads.
Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are actively removing posts. ‘The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organisation under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation policies. The Taliban has been designated by Facebook for years, long before events in recent months,’ a spokesperson said.
TikTok has also designated the Taliban as a terrorist group and will remove content praising or supporting them, while YouTube told Vox, ‘If we find an account believed to be owned and operated by the Afghan Taliban, we terminate it. Further, our policies prohibit content that incites violence.’
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected].
Topics: News, Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Taliban, Twitter, US
