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Taliban on Twitter

By Jon Sutz

Name: The Taliban, which now rules what it calls the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Twitter handles: Five; See Section 2
On Twitter since: 2021
Twitter follower count as of April 2022: 1,877,100 (combined, among five top Taliban officials whom Twitter allows to have accounts)

Contents

(1) Background: What is the Taliban?

(2) Twitter profits by enabling the Taliban’s top officials

(3) But why would the Taliban even want to use Twitter, being that it was created and is run by “infidels”? Because, as they say, “We too want to change perceptions”

(4) Why Twitter says it chose to enable the Taliban

(5) More: The history of the Taliban

(6) Updates

(1) Background: What is the Taliban?

The Taliban is one of the world’s most brutal Islamist terror gangs. Its adherents claim to be soldiers of God, who enforce totalitarian Islamic law (sharia) over Afghanistan’s 39 million people. They allow no dissent, no challenge to their authority, and anyone who deviates from sharia faces severe punishment, often death.

Wazir Nazari, a member of Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazara minority, was shot in the face by Taliban assailants, her father said. (Wall St. Journal)

Since August 2021, the Taliban has been hunting down and murdering Afghans who worked with US and Coalition forces — using data, weapons and vehicles that America left behind in its botched withdrawal:

(2) Twitter profits by enabling the Taliban’s top officials

Since the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan in July-August 2021. which enabled the Taliban to take control over the entire nation, Twitter has profited by enabling its senior “government” figures (follower counts are as of June 2022):

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban Spokesman, @Zabehulah_M33
Joined Twitter 2017. His follower count grew from 371,000 followers in September 2021, to 541,200 in April 2022, to 604,500 in June 2022 (a 63% increase – in nine months).

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, Taliban Spokesman, @QyAhmadi21
Joined Twitter 2020. His follower count grew from 119,900 followers in April 2022 to 130,500 in June 2022 (a 9% increase – in two months).

Naeem Wardak, Spokesman of the Political Office, @IeaOffice 
Archive captures: His follower count grew from 356,700 followers in April 2022 to 385,100 in June 2022 (an 8% increase – in two months).

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, @QaharBalkhi
Archive captures: His follower count grew from 112,200 followers in April 2022 to 133,900 followers in June 2022 (a 20% increase – in two months).

Suhail Shaheen, UN representative, @suhailshaheen1
Archive captures: His follower count grew from 602,900 followers in April 2022 to 623,200 followers in June 2022 (a 3% increase – in two months).

(3) But why would the Taliban even want to use Twitter, being that it was created and is run by “infidels”? Because, as they say, “We too want to change perceptions”

The Taliban embrace social media: ‘We too want to change perceptions’ – BBC News, September 6, 2021. Excerpt:

Zabihullah Mujahid’s first Twitter account was suspended by the company, but his new account – active since 2017 – has more than 371,000 followers. Underneath him is a dedicated team of volunteers promoting the Taliban’s ideology online.The reported head of that group – effectively the social media director of the IEA – is Qari Saeed Khosty.

Mr Khosty told the BBC the team had separate groups focused on Twitter – attempting to get Taliban hashtags trending – as well as disseminating messages on WhatsApp and Facebook.

“Our enemies have television, radio, verified accounts on social media and we have none, yet we fought with them on Twitter and Facebook and defeated them,” Mr Khosty said.

His job, he said, was to take people who had joined the Taliban because of its ideology and “bring them to social media platforms so they amplify our message”.

(4) Why Twitter says it chose to enable the Taliban

Here are some news items that present information on why Twitter’s management decided to profit by enabling the Taliban:

Why Twitter Allows The Taliban To Maintain Accounts On Its Platform – Yahoo News, August 18th 2021.

Twitter Allowing Taliban to Remain if They Don’t Share Violent Content – MediaIte, August 17th 2021.

Twitter Refuses to Ban Taliban Accounts, Vows to Remain ‘Vigilant’ Moderating Content – The Wrap, August 17th 2021.

Taliban allowed on Twitter, as social media debates role in Afghanistan crisis – Sinclair Broadcast Group, August 17th 2021.

Of note:

‘Strikingly sophisticated’ Taliban thrive on Twitter while Trump still banned – The Hill, August 20, 2021.

Trump barred from Twitter, but Taliban spokesman tweets away – Fox News, August 15, 2021.

(5) More: The history of the Taliban

I also created a separate page of videos, below, of reporting from, and about Afghanistan, since America’s withdrawal in July-August 2021 led to the Taliban’s takeover:

Videos about America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the aftermath — Jon Sutz

For now, here are a few select introductory videos about the Taliban:

(6) Updates

July 21, 2022: Human rights activist speaks on the Taliban’s brutal oppression of females in Afghanistan

July 19, 2022: Afghan “journalist” uploads Taliban propaganda video to Twitter

The time limit for videos uploaded to Twitter is 2 minutes 20 seconds (as opposed to posting links to YouTube videos, which can be of any length).

In this case, the video uploaded is exactly 2 minutes 20 seconds.

In case Twitter eventually removes this video, here is a screencap of what appeared at this link: