Taliban has a Twitter blue tick even though yours is probably gone, thanks to Elon Musk

Elon Musk, Twitter's new boss, had said that the new subscription services will grant blue ticks to individuals irrespective of their social status as long as they are willing to pay $8 every month for it. So, the Taliban decided why not use this opportunity to get itself verified using the new Twitter Blue service.

What? At least two Taliban officials and four of its prominent supporters in Afghanistan got the blue tick mark. Hedayatullah Hedayat, the head of the Taliban's department for "access to information" and Abdul Haq Hammad, head of the media watchdog at the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture got the 'verification' mark, reported the BBC.

#Afghanistan : #Taliban officials buying blue ticks on @Twitter thanks to paid scheme introduced under Elon Musk - pic.twitter.com/0U4T8pVXK8

— sebastian usher (@sebusher) January 16, 2023

• After many Twitter users expressed outrage, the social media company withdrew the blue tick from them. Hedayat has over 187,000 Twitter followers and Hammad has over 170,000 followers.

Making Twitter 'great' again: Muhammad Jalal, a former Taliban official, praised Musk on Monday (January 16) saying that the new microblogging site boss was "making Twitter great again".

Twitter users furious: Taliban are using stadiums as execution fields and mean while Elon Musk is busy verifying Taliban Leaders and influential commanders on Twitter for 8$ a month! Twitter is ruined," wrote TEDx 2021 speaker and journalist Nilofar Ayoubi on the social media platform.

Taliban are Using stadium as execution fields and mean while @elonmusk is busy verifying Taliban Leaders and influential commanders on twitter for 8$ a month!
Twitter is ruined . https://t.co/LQE4qAcmmR pic.twitter.com/Wx7OzS7fU0

— Nilofar Ayoubi (@NilofarAyoubi) January 17, 2023

"While Taliban are increasingly active on @Twitter & get @verified budges, their critics like @NajeebNangyal face ban or restrictions on the platform," tweeted another user Fawad Lameh.

While Taliban are increasingly active on @Twitter & get @verified budges, their critics like @NajeebNangyal face ban or restrictions on the platform.

Some activists ask @elonmusk & @TwitterSupport to not silence the voices against the Taliban. pic.twitter.com/ltRX5DVoQO

— Fawad Lameh فؤاد لامع (@fawadlameh) January 16, 2023

New Twitter policy for check marks: Under Twitter's new policies, gold checkmarks indicate businesses, grey ones are for notable personnel or government officials, but anyone who is willing to pay $8 every month can get a blue checkmark irrespective of their social status.

Taliban's presence on Twitter: Taliban has had a strong presence on Twitter for many years now. Their presence on popular social media platform has provoked fierce debate. They have used Twitter to spread their messaging and philosophy and after coming to power in Afghanistan they have been using their accounts to talk about their "work" and their propaganda.

• Former US President Donald Trump after getting suspended from Twitter had said that "We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on the platform, yet your favourite US President has been silenced."
• After getting back to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban took over verified accounts run by the previous administration, including the Afghanistan Cricket Board. The cricket board's account now carries a gold tick.

Bottom line: Even though Twitter has removed the blue tick marks from the two Taliban members' accounts, there has been no response on this from either Twitter or Elon Musk.

And since there are no background checks or verification processes before giving someone a blue check mark now, there may be many others from Taliban or even terrorist organistations who might be getting the tick mark by just paying $8 a month.