Trump complains ‘horrible muggers and dictators’ are allowed on Twitter and he isn’t
Trump called the ongoing presence of the Taliban on Twitter ‘disgraceful’. He remains permanently banned from the platform
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Your support makes all the difference.Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday lambasted Twitter for allowing the Taliban to continue operating on the micro-blogging platform in the wake of its takeover in Afghanistan, even as he remains permanently banned from using it.
In a phone interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly, Mr Trump said: “It's disgraceful when you think that you have killers and muggers and dictators and horrible... some horrible dictators and countries, and they are all on... but the president of the United States who had hundreds of millions of people, by the way, he gets taken off.”
Kelly had asked a question about the Twitter account of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, which has remained active since 2017 and is used frequently by the armed group’s representative to share posts and messages. The Twitter account’s description currently reads: “Official Twitter Account of the Spokesman of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Zabihullah Mujahid”.
Mujahid, who has over 320,000 people following him on Twitter, has used the social media platform to provide nearly live updates on how the militant group captured Kabul by force.
“Military units of the Islamic Emirate entered Kabul to provide security. 1 division conquered in Pul-e-Charkhi area, progress continues normally. The capitals of 9 districts of Kabul (Istalif, Surobi, Deh Sabz, Qarabagh, Khak-e-Jabbar, Paghman, Bagrami, Musahi, Chaharasyab, Guldara and Shakardara) were also conquered,” one of the tweets by the Taliban functionary read on the day the group announced its hold over the region.
Twitter has responded to what is unfolding in the South Asian nation by saying that they are monitoring the situation, and that people are using their platform to seek help.
“The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving, and we’re witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance. Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant,” a spokesperson for Twitter said in a statement.
Twitter will, however, continue to proactively enforce their rules and review content that violates the company’s policies, especially posts breaching its rules against “glorification of violence and platform manipulation and spam”, the spokesperson said.
Mr Trump, whose permanent ban from Twitter has now been in place for eight months, said he expects success in a lawsuit filed against social media giants Google, Twitter and Facebook in Florida.
Twitter banned the former president on 8 January for defending and glorifying the mob attack on the Capitol two days earlier. At least five were killed in the attempt to disrupt a Congress hearing to affirm Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
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