Twitter has been condemned by antisemitism campaigners for allowing the Taliban to spread “racist and dangerous misinformation”.
Accounts openly supporting the Islamist group have racked up thousands of followers from users around the world while attacking ‘Jewish overlords’.
One user identifying himself as ‘Malang Khosty’ who claims to live in Afghanistan remains on the social network despite posting extreme Jew-hatred.
His Twitter account claimed that ‘zionists’ were behind 9/11 and said that a video of American soldiers being passed a baby was in fact, “Americans stealing a fresh meal for their Jewish overlords”.
On Facebook, a cartoon implying that Israel created and controls the Islamic State was only removed after the JC alerted the social media giant.
The company also removed a group named ‘Talib Jan’, which had accrued over 73,000 members. Its posts included videos of Taliban fighters, users claiming that American soldiers are raping women who manage to flee the country, and calls to “pray for mujahadeen”.
A Facebook spokesperson told the JC they had removed the account and group for, “violating our policies against terrorism.”
Twitter user Ahmadullah Muttaqi, who identifies himself as ‘Chief Of Multimedia Branch The Cultural Commission Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan’ has almost 14,000 followers. He has used the platform to share seemingly official messages from the group condemning last week’s suicide bombing at Kabul airport.
Other accounts that claim to be based in Afghanistan have shared video footage of Taliban leaders making speeches.
A Twitter spokesperson said: “The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving. We're also witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance.
“Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant. We are taking steps to safeguard the voices of those on our service who represent protected groups including, humanitarian workers, journalists, news media organisations, human rights activists, and others.”
The rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban raises difficult questions for the social media giants. While the Taliban has been designated a terror group they could now claim the right to run the state’s official social media channels.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: "The appearance of antisemitic tropes in pro-Taliban propaganda will surprise no one but will disgust everyone – everyone except Twitter, which is apparently content to allow racist and dangerous misinformation to thrive on its platform."
