The Taliban Can Tweet but Trump Can't

MENA: We discovered that Representative Doug Lamborn sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressing concerns about members of the Taliban being allowed on the platform but not Trump according to Newsweek. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban, has been sharing information about the group’s takeover of Afghanistan on his account. He has over 350,000 followers. 

On January 8, 2021, Twitter announced that Trump would be permanently suspended from Twitter: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” The exact reason for his suspension was based on their “glorification of violence” policy. 

According to thehill.com, Twitter has yet to ban Taliban members: "The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “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 the glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.” 

This crossroads where an international group who has been sanctioned can use the platform but not a past U.S. president has some trying to make sense of the situation. According to analysts from the Washington Post: “The answer, analysts said, may simply be that Trump’s posts for years challenged platform rules against hate speech and inciting violence. Today’s Taliban, by and large, does not.”

For the time being, the Taliban can use the social media platform Twitter but a former U.S. president can not.