“The Taliban Spokesman has a Twitter account without any problem. Meanwhile, President Trump is banned from the platform,” said Rep. Claudia Tenney.
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
Republicans blasted Twitter on Monday for allowing Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s official spokesman in Afghanistan, to tweet freely while President Donald Trump remains permanently banned from the platform.
“Hey @Twitter @Jack, can you please explain this?” tweeted Josh Mandel, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio.
“Something is very wrong here,” tweeted Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY).
“The Taliban Spokesman has a Twitter account without any problem. Meanwhile, President Trump is banned from the platform. My account is search-banned and I have Congressional colleagues who are regularly suspended from the service,” she said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is currently on a one-week suspension from Twitter for spreading “misleading information” about the coronavirus vaccine, commented Monday on the new Gettr social media platform.
“The Taliban is killing people right now in Afghanistan and they can tweet,” said Greene.
“The Taliban who treats women and girls worse than dogs, kills gays, and is beheading people in the streets in Afghanistan right now can tweet. But not me. I’m suspended on Twitter for saying people should be able to choose to take the COVID vaccine or not. And not Trump,” she said.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) tweeted, “The Taliban can tweet, but President Trump is censored…clown world.”
Other reports have indicated that Taliban leaders and fighters are using social media platforms like Twitter and WhatsApp to spread propaganda and establish their control in Kabul. These same platforms have been used by Taliban members to spread videos of the horrors committed across Afghanistan in recent days.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Twitter and Facebook have regularly banned ISIS members from their platforms, but appear to let the Taliban broadcast its messages without interference.
Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington told the Washington Examiner, “Big Tech gives a platform to America’s enemies and all who hate our freedoms, yet banned the highest vote-getting incumbent president in history, President Trump, and deplatforms, censors, and shadow-bans his tens of millions of supporters.”
Twitter has faced similar criticism in the past. In May, Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, questioned Twitter’s banning of Trump while providing a platform for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“Twitter allows the Supreme Leader of Iran to openly call for genocide against Jews in Israel, but doesn’t allow the former president of the United States to use the platform. Something is seriously wrong here,” Haley said.
Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter on January 8, 2021, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” following the events of January 6.
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Tobias Siegal contributed to this report.