Twitter has gained the assist of an enormous identify backer towards fast-growing rival Threads – but it surely’s the Taliban.
A pacesetter of the hardline Islamist group, which seized energy in Afghanistan in summer season 2021, mentioned Elon Musk‘s platform was a tolerant place that allowed freedom of speech to thrive.
Anas Haqqani supplied his endorsement in a tweet on Monday, because it emerged that Meta’s new Twitter-like platform had amassed greater than 100 million customers in lower than every week.
Its reputation and brazen similarity to Twitter has irked Musk, who’s made his disdain for Mark Zuckerberg clear in a number of tweets since Threads launched and even threatened to sue.
However Haqqani, whose group has banned girls from college training, public areas, and most jobs, mentioned Musk had nothing to fret about.
« Different platforms can’t exchange it, » he mentioned of Twitter, citing its dedication to « freedom of speech » and its « public nature and credibility ».
« Twitter would not have an illiberal coverage like Meta, » he added.
Sky Information contacted Twitter for remark, however solely acquired a customary poop emoji in return.
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The Taliban on Twitter
Haqqani, who defended the Taliban’s regressive place on girls’s and ladies’ rights in a Sky Information interview final yr, is considered one of quite a few leaders from the regime with a Twitter account.
The Taliban had a presence on Twitter earlier than Musk purchased the corporate final October. The group is banned from rival platforms like Fb, Instagram, and TikTok.
Earlier this yr, it emerged Taliban figures had develop into verified on Twitter after signing up for the Twitter Blue subscription service, which grants customers with a checkmark beforehand reserved for public figures like athletes, politicians, celebrities, and a few journalists.
The Taliban’s ticks have been eliminated after backlash.
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Why Threads might be the Twitter-like that catches on
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Threads’s quick begin
Musk’s stance on verification and moderation are among the many causes some customers have sought to go away Twitter.
However no rivals have threatened its place because the go-to social media platform for real-time textual content updates like Threads, which shortly dwarfed the consumer base of different Twitter-likes akin to Bluesky and Mastodon and will quickly meet up with Twitter’s estimated inhabitants of 360-400 million.
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Its aggressively-timed launch got here simply days after Musk introduced short-term studying limits on Twitter, however with larger limits for individuals who paid for Twitter Blue.
Musk and Zuckerberg’s verbal sparring through their respective apps might finish with the pair having an precise battle, with each billionaires having prompt they need a cage match.
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