Taliban to Buy Blue Check Verification for Their Twitter Accounts

You might be worried that Twitter was getting more bizarre since Elon Musk became the CEO. This week’s strangeness doesn’t stop. There has been quite a debate taking place over Musk’s decision to revamp the “verification” You can sell checkmarks in a variety of colors to anyone who asks and pays a monthly fee. Many have taken advantage of the offer and gained some amplification for their tweets as well as other user options not offered to the public. So perhaps we shouldn’t have been all that surprised to learn that high-ranking officials from the Taliban have gotten in on the actionAlthough it is not, it sounds at first glance very alarming. (BBC)

One of the terrorist officials who now has a blue check is Hedayatullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban’s department for “access to information.” He is on Twitter with over 180,000 followers. tweets regularly. But I don’t see a checkmark of any color by his name.

د افغانستان اسلامي امارت د تېر #یوه_کال په جریان کې په #درېیو مهمو برخو کې له #بهرنیو_کمپنیو سره د #پانګونې_قراردادونه لاسلیک او عملي چارې یې پیل کړې دي https://t.co/JvUImjPcAE

— هدایت الله (هدایت) (@Hedayatullah111) January 17, 2023

(Rough translation from Twitter: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has started signing and implementing important areas during the past.”)

It took a while to find Hedayatullah Hedayat’s account. This name seems to be as popular in Afghanistan as John Smith, but he is actually on the platform. I checked out a few others on the list and they also appear to be active. So, what can we learn from this?

One of the complaints that we heard about Twitter pre-Musk was that Donald Trump, a world leader and a dictator, had been banned. Yet, many other, far worse figures from autocratic, tyrannical governments continued tweeting as they pleased. It was a fair question to ask, but it’s often been reasonably argued that high-ranking public and political figures have voices that need to be heard in public debates, no matter how admirable or noxious you may find them personally.

Any regular readers already know that I’m not here supporting the Taliban. They are murderous terrorists who are destroying the people and the fabric of the country they overran after America’s disastrous withdrawal. Hedayatullah Hedayat in Afghanistan is a government official and his office focuses on information accessibility. If we’re going to shut down his account, what’s to stop us from once again shuttering the platforms of Donald Trump or even Joe Biden?

These people should have checkmarks beside their names. That’s another debate entirely and I won’t go through it again today. Yes, if we could still live in an era where a checkmark indicated that your identity was verified and that you were of some public interest at minimum, then yes. Hedayatullah Hedayat might be eligible. And under Musk’s new rules, anyone with eight or twelve dollars per month to spare can have a checkmark, provided they don’t peddle kiddy porn or break the other rules. This account should be treated similarly, I think.

As I said at the top, it’s a strange situation to be sure, and the optics are terrible, at least from a western perspective. But it’s the “digital town square of the world,” We are reminded of this often. Everyone with a soapbox may not be a good person. They still have the opportunity to speak.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases