Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he has made numerous changes, and among them, include the way the platform sees the "verified" blue check mark.
Traditionally, the check mark is something that is given, not obtained. Twitter only gave blue check marks to accounts that were considered "active, notable and authentic accounts of public interest." But since Elon Musk acquired the platform, users can buy the the blue check marks from the Twitter Blue service for a fee.
"Until now, Twitter used the blue checkmark to indicate active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest that Twitter had independently verified based on certain requirements. Now the blue checkmark may mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (active and authentic), or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue," Twitter said on its page.
What this means, anyone has an equal chance to obtain the blue check mark.
And apparently, anyone also includes the Taliban, the notorious hardline of Islam from Afghanistan.
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist and Pashtun nationalist militant political movement in Afghanistan.
It ruled approximately Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the U.S. invasion, to only recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 after nearly 20 years of insurgency.
With control of the country, the Taliban is known for its strict governance over human rights, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
And this time, the Islamist ruler was found purchasing Twitter Blue, to sport the famous blue check mark.
Sooner than later, the news sparked outrage among users who oppose the group’s ties with violent terrorist organizations.
Twitter account verifications bought by the Taliban appear to have been removed, after many expressed outrage that the social media platform had given its blue check marks to Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rulers.
With many people complaining, Twitter took a stance and deliberately removed the blue check mark from Hedayatullah Hedayat (@Hedayatullah111), the head of the Taliban’s department for “access to information”, and his top media watchdog, Abdul Haq Hammad.
It's worth noting that Hedayat, who regularly publishes information about Taliban administration matters, had previously got his blue check mark after it was first removed in December, before it was removed again.
Before this, one Taliban official praised Musk for making the blue check mark something that users can buy, and thanked him for "making Twitter great again."
After all, the Taliban that have long used Twitter to spread their messaging, had never carried a verification tick mark until Twitter Blue.
Musk has reinstated numerous controversial figures, including former U.S. President, Donald Trump, and rapper Kanye West. But Taliban is a different being.
The group is known for its long record of human rights violations and its ties with violent terrorist organizations.
By accepting that such group paid to have the check mark, means that Twitter had to live with the fact that it was endorsed by the Taliban.
Because of the outrage, both Hedayat and Hammad no longer carried the blue check marks.
It's worth noting that it's not clear whether Twitter or the users themselves removed the verifications.
