Taliban Bought Twitter Verified Check Marks

Taliban Hedayatullah and Hammad with the blue ticks on their accounts.

They both have 187,000 and 170,000 followers on their respective accounts. Hedayat’s previously regained its tick after it had been taken away initially in December. Hedayat regularly provides information about Taliban administration issues.

Taliban spokesperson Muhammad Jalal even commended Musk for the verifications and for “making Twitter wonderful again.”

Thank you @elonmusk for buying twitter. Elon Musk in making twitter great again.

— Muhammad Jalal (@MJalal0093) January 16, 2023

The Taliban’s account verifications, nevertheless, seem to have been revoked amid backlash over the social media platform’s blue checkmarks being handed to Afghanistan’s virulently Islamist government.

Before, only “active, prominent, and authentic accounts of public interest” received the blue “verified” checkmark from Twitter.

However, users can now purchase them via the Twitter Blue service for a price since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year; at least two Taliban government officials in Afghanistan had used this option.

The blue checkmarks were no longer there in Hedayat’s and Hammad’s accounts.

It wasn’t apparent who erased the verifications—Twitter or the users.

So yet, neither Twitter nor Musk, who makes extensive use of the platform, have made any public comments regarding the issue.