Officials of the radical Islamist Taliban movement communicate freely on Twitter after the radical Islamist group quickly takes control over Afghanistan and implements its emirate. The social network, which permanently deleted the account of then-President Donald Trump in January this year due to alleged “incitement to violence”, seems to be taking an entirely hands-off approach to the wave of violence striking the country.
Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Souhayl Shaheen are active Twitter users, posting propaganda tweets several times each day about newly conquered territories. However, the social network has yet to block their accounts, although they too are inciting violence against the still-official Afghan government.
On the other hand, due to “incitement to violence”, Twitter permanently deleted the account of US President Donald Trump in January this year. While still serving as the leader of the most powerful Western country in the world, his account with 88 million followers was wiped off the web.
At the time, Twitter claimed that Trump refused to accept the results of the presidential election and that he called on his supporters to march to the Congress building. Shortly afterward, Trump’s supporters broke through security barriers at the Capitol and stormed inside. However, Trump did not directly encourage any violence, as video recordings of his speech beforehand show in which he tells his supporters to “peacefully” protest.
Nevertheless, his account was deleted in January, and Trump lost the opportunity to speak to millions of his followers for good.
