Twitter Storm; ‘Ban Taliban’ Vs. ‘Afghans Support Taliban’  Campaigns

By Saqalain Eqbal / in Afghanistan / on Saturday, 23 Jul 2022


Following Meta’s crackdown on Taliban-affiliated pages and content, some Afghans started a trend on Twitter with a hashtag calling for a ban on the Taliban, while others started a different campaign in support of the Taliban, which became a trending hashtag in Pakistan.

With thousands of tweets supporting it thus far, the hashtag “BanTaliban” become a global trend. The trend, which is rapidly expanding, has received extensive media attention in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Europe, and India in addition to the United States of America.

Another of the most popular topics on Twitter among Afghan users is the campaign started by the Taliban’s supporters. It is also said that today, Saturday, July 23, the hashtag “AfghansSupportTaliban” is at the top of Pakistan’s trending hashtags.

The hashtag of Taliban supporters has been shared on Twitter almost over 130 thousand times as of now. Members of the Taliban actively participate in this campaign.

This comes after Meta, formerly known as Facebook, on Wednesday banned Taliban-affiliated content and pages and TV channels, including the RTA TV channel and Bakhtar News Agency.