The approach of the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, which consists in rejecting any form of censorship and defending freedom of expression on social media, received rather unexpected support: From the Taliban.

THE Anas Haqqania senior leader of the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, said on Monday that Twitter has “two important advantages” compared to other platformsdays after Meta launched its new social media, Threads, which aims to compete with Twitter.

“The first advantage is the freedom of expression. The second is the Twitter’s public character and credibility“, he wrote on Twitter.

“Twitter doesn’t have the zero-tolerance policy that the Meta. Other platforms cannot replace it”he added.

This statement drew strong criticism, with many noting that the Taliban government does not allow the same rights in terms of freedom of expression to its citizens.

The activity of Afghans on social media is closely monitored by the authorities and many people have been arrested for criticizing the government.

Since their return to power the August 2021, the Taliban have significantly increased their social media presence. Nevertheless, many of their accountsor those of their supporters, blocked, sometimes as quickly as they were created.

The Taliban government now uses Twitter to make major announcements and most ministries have official accounts, although none appear to have paid for the blue tick since Twitter changed its account authentication system earlier this year.

Meta, a company that owns Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, closes accounts associated with the Taliban;

Accounts with the words “Taliban”, “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” or with the characteristic white flag of the Islamic movement are quickly closedaccording to social media watchers.

Last year, the Facebook shut down the pages of RTA, Afghanistan’s state-run Radio and Television and the Bakhtar news agency, with Facebook backing its decision by saying it complies with US law designating the Taliban a “terrorist organization”.

Muskwho bought Twitter last year, has reinstated tens of thousands of banned accounts, such as that of former US President Donald Trump.

Some of these accounts that were blocked by previous Twitter management they belonged to supporters of conspiracy theories, opponents of vaccination, misinformation, harassment and hate speech.

THE Anas Haqqanibrother of the Afghan interior minister, Shirazuddin Haqqani, is one of the young figures of the Taliban movement.

With over 500,000 followers on Twitter, he posts – often in English – on a variety of topics, from cricket to poetry, or national or international politics.