Why Did Twitter Ban Trump But Allow Taliban Propaganda?

Published: August 20, 2021

Why Did Twitter Ban Trump But Allow Taliban Propaganda?

By Movieguide® Staff

Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado blasted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for a “troubling double standard” that has become more evident after the Taliban took government control in Afghanistan.

Lamborn pointed out that while the social media company banned former president Donald Trump for allegedly inciting riots, Twitter did nothing about Taliban propaganda posted to its platform.

“It is clear that the Taliban is a violent organization,” the congressman wrote in his letter, adding that he could not “find a single fact check on any of their tweets, nor any warnings for false or misleading content.”

“It is impossible to see how the accounts of [Taliban members] Zabihullah Mujahid and Yousef Ahmadi do not violate your policies,” he continued. “It is clear that Twitter has political bias in its algorithms and a troubling double standard. I look forward to a prompt reply on why a former United States President is banned while two Taliban spokesmen are allowed to remain.”

Breaking 🚨 I sent a letter to @Jack over @Twitter's blatant speech bias & double standards. Why does Twitter allow two Taliban spokesmen to have a platform but restricts the First Amendment Rights of former President Trump? It's past time to hold #BigTech accountable. #Taliban pic.twitter.com/6tylgmCBTz

— Rep. Doug Lamborn (@RepDLamborn) August 17, 2021

According to Newsweek, Twitter defended its content guidelines claiming that they “continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”

Recently, Facebook also released a statement that classified the Taliban as a terrorist organization.

“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.

However, after the capitol hill riots in January, the same company banned then-president Donald Trump from their social media platform due to “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

“Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open,” Twitter wrote at the time. “However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.”

Movieguide® previously reported that Trump sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for censorship:

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is suing Big Tech CEOs, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, and Google’s Sundar Pichai over alleged censorship.

“I’m filing as the lead class representative a major class-action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter as well as their executives,” Trump said. “We’re going to hold big tech accountable.”

Trump called the lawsuit “a very beautiful development for our freedom of speech.”

He continued: “We are demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing, and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and cancelling that you know so well.”