Taliban praises Twitter for ‘freedom of speech’

The Islamist movement prefers Elon Musk’s network over Threads by Meta, a senior Taliban leader has revealed

Social media giant Twitter has received an unexpected endorsement from the Taliban, with the group praising it for upholding “freedom of speech” principles and maintaining its “credibility.”

The unlikely support was voiced by senior Taliban leader Anas Haqqani on Monday. Haqqani praised the network, stating that it had “two important advantages” over other social media platforms, including its recently-launched rival, Meta-owned Threads.

In particular, Twitter maintains the “freedom of speech” principle as well as its “public nature and credibility,” Haqqani argued. He also took a jab at Meta, condemning that company’s purportedly “intolerant policy,” and claiming that Twitter cannot be replaced by “other platforms” altogether.

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The Taliban has increasingly been using social media, both before but particularly after its takeover of Afghanistan back in 2021, with Twitter apparently becoming the public communication medium of choice for them. The endorsement from the Islamist group comes days after Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta launched Threads, a brand-new microblogging service that has already attracted over 100 million users.

The launch has been marred by multiple scandals, with Twitter owner Elon Musk accusing Meta of “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s intellectual property and threatening to sue it. On top of this, he launched a fresh, vicious personal assault on Zuckerberg, branding him a “cuck” and challenging him to a “literal dick-measuring contest.”