Sometimes things just get weird at a pace where you might find it hard to keep up. For example, I wasn’t even aware that Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was on social media. It turns out that he’s on Twitter and he has more than 300,000 followers. (Which really makes me wonder what I’ve been doing wrong all of this time.) At least he doesn’t have a blue checkmark, though I probably shouldn’t give them ideas. The fact that he’s tweeting should come as something of a surprise because Facebook, Tik Tok, and other social media giants have taken steps to ban members of the terror group when they are located. But Mediaite reports that when a Twitter spokesperson was asked if the company would similarly root out these individuals and ban them, they declined. They simply repeated their “standard policy,” seeming to imply that as long as the Taliban spox “didn’t become violent” he could continue to use the platform. Seriously? Yes… it’s actually true.

Twitter is refusing to join its peers in the social-media world in prohibiting the Taliban from using its platform.

Asked on Tuesday whether Twitter would join Facebook, TikTok and other tech companies in banning the terror group, a spokesman for the company sidestepped the question, saying in a statement it would “continue to proactively enforce” its rules on the “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.” The statement also took a moment to sell the company as a communication platform, saying it was “witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid maintains an active presence on the website, where he enjoyed more than 200,000 followers as of Tuesday. He also is not the group’s only member using social media to promote the Taliban’s message.

I was at least somewhat pleasantly surprised to learn that other government officials jumped in to criticize this decision. French politician Jerome Riviere pointed to the disparity in how Twitter treats various famous figures, noting that Donald Trump is still banned, but the mouthpiece for the group currently slaughtering people in the streets of most Afghan cities is free to tweet away.

Freedom and democracy are not doing well when #Twitter continues to ban #Trump’s account but relays the #Taliban spokesperson's without any second thoughts pic.twitter.com/WAOCCdoGdt

— Jerome Riviere (@jerome_riviere) August 15, 2021

Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t Twitter been lecturing all of us about their zero-tolerance policy regarding violence? Have they ever even heard of the Taliban? You can get banned from the platform for tweeting “Blue Lives Matter” because that somehow promotes violence against minorities or something. But the guy whose soldiers just literally murdered a woman in cold blood in front of a camera for not wearing a burqa doesn’t promote violence?

Also, Twitter is the self-appointed guardian of the truth, right? They’re working hard to root out “misinformation” and kick those promoting it out of the pool. That misinformation can include things such as asking whether or not the novel coronavirus might have originated in a lab in Wuhan. (Whoops!) The Taliban spokesperson has lied about virtually everything he’s told the press and other foreign leaders. Lies and violence essentially define everything that the Taliban stand for. Even Facebook and Tik Tok were clever enough to figure that much out. But Twitter wants to be the neutral party here, apparently.

When the government thought that Ma Bell was too big back in the day, they broke it up into a bunch of “Baby Bells.” I’m not sure whether Twitter is too big, too dishonest and biased, or just too stupid. But they’re definitely too “something.” The question is what to do about it.