Verifications of Twitter accounts bought by the Taliban appear to have been removed, after many expressed outrage that the social media platform had given its blue checkmark to Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rulers.
Previously, Twitter only awarded “verified” blue checkmarks to accounts that were deemed “active, notable, and bona fide accounts of public interest.” But since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year, users can buy them on the Twitter Blue service for a fee, an option that had been exercised by at least two Taliban government officials in Afghanistan.
The head of the Taliban’s “access to information” department, Hedayatullah Hedayat, and his top media supervisor, Abdul Haq Hammad, had blue ticks on their accounts as of Monday. The two men’s accounts have 187,000 and 170,000 followers each. Hedayat’s, which regularly publishes information on Taliban administration affairs, had already regained its branding after it was first removed in December.
bbc reported on Monday that Hedayat and Hammad had successfully become Twitter Blue subscribers, allowing them to get verification marks that they and other Taliban previously lacked.
A former Taliban official praised Musk for the verifications and for “making Twitter great again,” according to the BBC report. But the report sparked outrage from many users who oppose the Taliban’s long history of human rights violations and its links to violent terrorist organizations.
“Twitter Blue: backed by the Taliban (laughing out loud),” wrote one user.
By Tuesday, Hedayat’s and Hammad’s accounts no longer had the blue checkmarks. It was not clear if Twitter or the users themselves removed the verifications.
Neither Twitter nor Musk, who uses the service prolifically, have so far responded publicly on the situation.
According to Twitter Blue, users who subscribe to the service at $8 per month ($11 for those who use the platform app on Apple devices) get priority in searches, mentions and replies. Twitter says it uses the service as a source of revenue and to combat spam and bot accounts.
The Taliban have long used Twitter to spread their messages, but they had never carried a checkmark until Twitter Blue.
Twitter’s current policies give gold marks to companies and gray marks to government officials and other notable authorities.
The Taliban took over the Twitter accounts of the previous government after they regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, two decades after their initial ouster by a US-led military coalition.
