Twitter has apparently revoked the verified “blue check” status of senior Taliban members who were reportedly paying an $8 monthly subscription.
A minimum of two officials from the Islamic group that overran US-backed forces and took over the country before US troops withdrew in August 2021 have subscribed to the Twitter Blue service launched by recent owner Elon Musk.
But later BBC News reported verified status of Taliban officials, Twitter seems to have canceled their subscriptions.
A look on the Twitter account pages of Taliban officials Abdul Haq Hammad and Hedayatullah Hedayat showed that there was no “blue check” next to their handles as of Tuesday.
Several other public figures known to be linked to the Taliban were reported to have purchased the blue check, although the symbol had not been seen since Tuesday morning.
Hammad, whose account boasts greater than 170,000 followers, is the pinnacle of the media oversight unit of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture.
The account run by Hedayat, a top official within the Taliban’s “information department”, which has over 188,000 followers, had a blue checkmark as indicated within the screenshot that sent by DailyMail.com.
![An official in the Taliban's propaganda department paid for the blue check - though it appears Twitter has revoked the privilege.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/taliban-twitterA.jpeg?w=930)
Since re-taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban have allegedly committed widespread human rights violations, including barring women from schools and government jobs, in addition to sexual and gender-based violence.
A representative from Twitter, which fired its media relations department after Musk accomplished its $44 billion acquisition of the corporate in late October, was not available for comment.
Before Musk bought Twitter, some accounts got checkmarks to offer them the status of public figures, including celebrities, politicians, artists and outstanding journalists.
![Twitter released its own](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/twitter-verified-38.jpg?w=1024)
In December, Twitter reintroduced the “Twitter Blue” service in hopes of accelerating revenue.
The service allowed users to pay a monthly fee of $8 in exchange for a blue checkmark that gave them “priority in searches, mentions and replies.”
However the initial rollout a couple of weeks earlier proved disastrous after pranksters adopted the web identities of political leaders and major corporations, including pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
A scammer who took over the name of Eli Lilly falsely tweeted that the corporate could be offering insulin free of charge, sending the stock price plummeting.
The chaos prompted Musk to suspend the “Twitter Blue” service to place in place safeguards to forestall similar incidents in the long run.
![The Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic group that seized pro-American forces in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/taliban-kabul-afghanistan-36.jpg?w=1024)
The most recent version of “Twitter Blue” encompasses a color coding system where golden check marks are reserved for corporations and grey symbols for authorities.
Musk took aim on the BBC on Monday, tweeting: “Due to the BBC for self-identifying your nationality.” It shouldn’t be clear what prompted the tweet.
The tech mogul then modified his own Twitter bios to “state media”.
On Sunday, a Twitter user asked if some media entities must have a “state media” label next to their handles.
Musk replied to the user, “Technically, Twitter must have it too.”
Following the acquisition of Twitter, Musk shared Slack’s internal files and messages with several journalists who published a series of articles referred to as “Twitter Files.”
The documents show that Twitter’s former leadership was in constant contact with lawmakers – mainly Democrats – who sought to influence the corporate’s content moderation policy on social media.
![Human rights organizations say the Taliban are guilty of widespread violations against women and minorities in Afghanistan.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/taliban-kabul-afghanistan-37.jpg?w=1024)
]Musk also reinstated the accounts of controversial individuals who had been banned by the old management, including former President Donald Trump and creator Jordan Peterson.
But Musk, who called himself a “free speech absolutist”, also banned Kanye West after the rapper made several anti-Semitic statements.
He also upheld the ban imposed on Infowars host Alex Jones, who claimed the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.