There are now verified Twitter accounts for Taliban leaders. According to the BBC, two well-known Taliban officials and four fans all used bluetick subscriptions to get their profiles verified. This includes Hedayatullah Hedayat, who oversees the Taliban’s information access division and has a following of about 187,000. He frequently shares information on the Taliban government and was carrying the tick, which has since been removed.
Abdul Haq Hammad, the director of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture’s media watchdog, also has a verified account with around 170,000 followers. Hedayat and Hammad are not the only well-known Taliban sympathizers who now have verified accounts.
No Taliban official had a verified account prior to the advent of the so-called paid blue tick
The company initially claimed that its blue tick service would only list “noble, active, and authentic accounts of public interest” that it would independently verify and that could not be purchased. But shortly after Elon Musk took control, the microblogging platform announced the availability of a premium “verification tick,” which costs $8 for Android users and $11 for those using the app on Apple devices. It has always been controversial to have these hard-line Islamists on Twitter.
After the Capitol incident on January 6, 2021, former US President Donald Trump’s account was suspended. At the time, Trump had said, “Your favorite American President has been silenced, while we live in a world where the Taliban has a large presence on Twitter.” On Monday, a Taliban official Muhammad Jalal praised Elon Musk saying that he is “making Twitter great again.” No Taliban official had a verified account prior to the advent of the so-called paid blue tick.