Taliban leader, Anas Haqqani, has publicly expressed his support for Elon Musk's Twitter, vehemently criticizing Instagram's Threads.
The Taliban official shared some of the "important advantages" of Twitter over its newest rival and other counterparts.
Taliban Leader Endorses Twitter Over Instagram's Threads
Anas Haqqani attends a meeting of international special representatives and representatives from the Taliban on January 24, 2022 in Oslo, Norway.
As per a report by Business Insider, Haqqani, who was at the forefront of the Taliban's negotiations with Afghanistan's former government, weighs in on the newest social media war between tech titans Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Musk.
In his recent tweet, he laid out what sets Twitter apart from other competitions out there. The Taliban leader claims that the Musk-owned social media has the advantage of "freedom of speech." He went on to praise Twitter for its "public nature" and "credibility."
Haqqani then took a swipe at Meta's new text-based service, which directly challenges Twitter. He expressed that "Twitter [does not] have an intolerant policy like Meta," adding that "other platforms cannot replace it."
His tweet quickly made rounds on the Musk-owned platform, garnering a whopping 1.5 million views.
According to Vice, the Taliban seems to like where Twitter is going nowadays. Musk bought it late last year for a whopping $44 million. Since then, the billionaire entrepreneur started slackening the moderation policy, and most notably, began selling the much-coveted blue checkmarks. In fact, two high-ranking Taliban officials have already got themselves the blue ticks.
The Facebook parent Meta debuted Threads less than a week ago, and the new kid on the block is quickly gaining traction. Zuck announced that the new service "reached 100 million sign-ups over the weekend," merely five days since it debuted.
Taliban vs. Facebook Parent Meta
This illustration photo taken May 13, 2022, displays Elon Musks Twitter account with a Twitter logo in the background in Los Angeles.
According to Newsweek, a spokesperson from Meta, which owns Threads, says that the tech giant prohibits terrorist individuals, organizations, and networks on its services, including Facebook and Instagram.
In a policy statement, Zuck's Meta says not allowing individuals or organizations with "violent mission or are engaged in violence on Facebook is "to prevent and disrupt real-world harm." On top of that, the tech behemoth discloses that they "assess these entities based on their behavior both online and offline, most significantly, their ties to violence."
And as such, Business Insider notes that Facebook has banned the Taliban from the social network. Besides that, WhatsApp also attempted to kick out Taliban members from the end-to-end encrypted messaging app.
With that, Taliban members stormed Twitter in 2020 to reach out to their English-speaking audience. One member reportedly told BBC, "The Taliban wanted to counter their propaganda and that's why we too focused ourselves on Twitter."
Related Article: Instagram's Threads Nears 100 Million Users, 5 Days Since the Twitter Rival Debuts
