Taliban praises Elon Musk and the way he is running Twitter, slams Zuckerberg’s Meta

By Ankita ChakravartiWe are not sure how Elon Musk is going to react this show of support — or at all he will react to it — but for whatever it is worth, it seems Taliban loves him and Twitter. At a time when Musk is fighting with Mark Zuckerberg, who has launched Twitter-rival Threads, a Taliban leader out of blue offered support to the Twitter boss. On Monday Anas Haqqani, a Taliban leader, tweeted in support for Musk and praised him for making Twitter a good platform for freedom of speech!

Praising Twitter, Haqqani posted on Twitter, “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.”

Why Taliban hates Meta?

The reason why the Taliban leader prefers Twitter over Meta (previously Facebook) is quite straightforward. Facebook has labeled the Taliban as a “Tier 1 designated terrorist organization” according to their policies.

This designation restricts the Taliban leaders from freely sharing their views on the platform. In contrast, Twitter seemingly provides them with more freedom to express themselves. Interestingly, the Taliban has an active Twitter account called ‘Islamic Emirate Afg’ with about 35,000 followers. They frequently update the account with posts in the Urdu language. By choosing Twitter, the Taliban finds a platform that allows them to communicate their message more openly and reach a wider audience.

Although phrases like freedom of speech hold only symbolic and opportunistic relevance for a group like Taliban, which routinely pushes policies that can be called regressive in Afghanistan. However, despite whatever policies Taliban and its government has in Afghanistan, the group does have a fairly free hand in expressing itself on Twitter.

In contrast, on Meta the word “Taliban” itself is dirty. When we searched for the term “Taliban” on Facebook, we were greeted with a message that raised concerns. The message asked us to confirm if we wanted to proceed with the search, stating that the term is sometimes associated with dangerous individuals and organizations, which is not allowed on Facebook.

“Are you sure you want to continue? The term you searched for is sometimes associated with activities of Dangerous Individuals and Organizations, which is not allowed on Facebook,” the message read.

Notably, Facebook has implemented measures to limit or prevent content related to the Taliban due to their involvement in activities considered risky or harmful. This message hints that Facebook is actively monitoring and taking action to regulate the presence of Taliban-related content on its platform, in line with its policies against such content.

Threads clocks over 100 million users

While Haqqani may have a preference for Twitter over Threads, not all Twitter users are happy with the way Elon Musk is running things on Twitter since he took charge. Under his leadership, the Twitter workforce was drastically reduced by almost 80 per cent, resulting in the loss of around 8,000 jobs. Moreover, Musk also introduced significant changes, like giving preference and boost in reach to paid subscribers and rate limit, that have not gone down well with users.

On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads has seen a different story unfold. Since its launch, Threads has quickly gained over 100 million users within a short span of time, although these numbers are also boosted by the fact that Threads is a complimentary app to Instagram. To celebrate Threads victory, Zuckerberg wrote on his app, “Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days.”