Politics : Trump slams Twitter for allowing Taliban but banning him as president

Former President Donald Trump slammed Twitter for allowing the Taliban to use the social media platform to provide updates on their conquest of Afghanistan — as it stands by its decision to ban him from the site.

“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,” Trump told Newsmax Wednesday in a phone interview.

While Trump has remained banned from the platform since the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has been allowed to post updates freely on the platform.

Mujahid’s unverified account, which was used to provide updates on the Taliban’s capture of Afghan cities as they aggressively took control of the country in days, has racked up more than 326,000 followers.

Another Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, has more than 66,000 followers.

Twitter issued a blanket statement to questions about the radical Islamic militant group’s presence on the platform, but the company did not respond directly to the former president’s criticism.

“The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving,” the statement reads. “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.”

In contrast, Twitter announced it was banning Trump on Jan. 8, while he was still president and his account had more than 80 million followers.

The company said at the time that it had to ban Trump “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” in the fallout of the Capitol insurrection, which largely involved his supporters. The riots left five dead.

“Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021,” Twitter said at the time.

Last month, Trump sued Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for shuttering his accounts, as well as taking similar actions against other conservatives, in what he called the “illegal and shameful censorship of the American people.”

The class-action filings seek unspecified damages for alleged First Amendment violations that Trump said could total “trillions” of dollars.

In the case of the Taliban, Twitter’s official rules appear to clash with conduct that’s historically been associated with the militant group, but the Taliban’s spokespeople appear to be keeping it clean on Twitter so far.

The Taliban have been known to use extreme violence, especially against women, academics and anyone who opposes the group’s fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.

It also has reportedly encouraged the marriage of its soldiers to children, which would violate Twitter’s policy against “child sexual exploitation.”

Other social media companies, including Facebook and TikTok, have been more proactive in limiting the reach of the Taliban.

Facebook, which has also suspended Trump until 2023 at the earliest, has a team monitoring and removing posts, images, videos and other content related to the Taliban.

“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a spokesperson told CNBC.

The Taliban have been banned from Facebook for several years, the spokesperson said.

TikTok also told CNBC it has designated the Taliban a terrorist group and that it will remove content that praises or supports them.

Alphabet-owned YouTube told Vox that it’s also recognized the Taliban as a terrorist group and takes down any content believed to be posted by them.

“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,” a YouTube spokesperson reportedly said in a statement.

Exactly. Don can degrade women just as much as the Taliban can!! UNFAIR!!

---

MMC2: "Drill here! Drill now, Biden!"

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen wants us to believe it's all propaganda.

Suhail Shaheen. محمد سهیل شاهین
@suhailshaheen1
All those claims that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan forces people to marry their young girls to Mujahideen are totally wrong. It is a poisonous propaganda.

11:14 PM · Aug 14, 2021·Twitter Web App

2,479 Retweets
411 Quote Tweets
9,894 Likes

He has 373.2K Followers.

https://twitter.com/suhailshaheen1/status/1426743986430042120

Twitter is a disgrace.

---

😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 😠 Let's go, Brandon!

I am so loving this!


"…the president of the United States, who had hundreds of millions of people, by the way, he gets taken off,”

In contrast, Twitter announced it was banning Trump on Jan. 8, while he was still president and his account had more than 80 million followers.


Turd Lump cannot help but lie yet again.

Yea!
It actually added huge points to all platforms involved in my book.

---

Without strife, your victory has no meaning.
Without strife, you do not advance.
Without strife, there is only stagnation.

Just shows the twisted priorities of the far left weirdos who run social media sites.

---

😺 Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. 😠 Let's go, Brandon!

lol you're too funny!!

It isn't just Twitter that deserves scorn but the liberal users that celebrated Donald Trump being removed and have no issue with the Taliban using it. The woke left of Twitter will get you cancelled for a joke you made years ago but they are silent on the Taliban who oppress women and rape children.