Taliban Spokesman Gives Updates On Twitter, Trump Remains Suspended

We're currently living in a world where a Taliban spokesperson is allowed to give operational updates in Afghanistan via a Twitter account that is being cited by mainstream news outlets from around the world, while Donald Trump's account remains suspended.

"Kabul is under the control of the city, special units of the Islamic Emirate have been deployed in different parts of the city to provide security. The general public is happy with the arrival of the Mujahideen and satisfied with the security," Zabihullah Mujahid said Monday via a translated tweet as citizens hung off the sides of U.S. C-17 transport planes leaving Kabul.

In a tweet posted Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahid noted that Taliban fighters had seized control of Parun, the capital of the Nuristan province and got their hands on a "large number of weapons, tools and equipment fell into the hands of the Mojahedin."


Meanwhile, Twitter said in a January 8 press release that it had "permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence." The company cited two posts that caused the social media company to suspend Trump's account.

Twitter said in that Jan. 8 statement that it had assessed those two tweets under its "Glorification of Violence policy, which aims to prevent the glorification of violence that could inspire others to replicate violent acts" and made the conclusion that Trump's tweets were "highly likely" to inspire people to "replicate" what happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

Here we are on August 16 and a Taliban spokesperson tweets freely even though there's a section of Twitter's "Glorification of Violence policy" that specifically mentions that violations of that policy include "glorifying, praising, condoning, or celebrating...attacks carried out by terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups (as defined by our terrorism and violent extremism policy)."

Now, you can dig down into the terrorism and violent extremism policy to find that Twitter says it's a violation for terrorists to be "engaging in or promoting acts on behalf of a violent organization."

CNN reported on July 14 that 22 Afghan commandos were murdered as they tried to surrender to the Taliban. This is the Taliban that Zabihullah Mujahid is representing as a spokesperson and Twitter is allowing it.