Taliban Officials Get ‘Verified’ Blue Checks on Twitter as They Ban Women From Attending School

Musk claimed the paid verification program would restore “power to the people,” but it mostly lead to people impersonating brands and public figures. After the disastrous (and, yes, sometimes funny) rollout of Twitter Blue, Twitter had to pause the paid verification program to figure shit out. While impersonation is now banned, it appears there’s no way to stop literal terrorists from paying the fee and getting a blue check.

Twitter Blue isn’t only about getting the checkmark—the paid service also gives subscribers “priority ranking in search, mentions, and replies,” which Twitter said was an effort “to help lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.” But in this case, it just seems to be boosting the messages of terrorists and their supporters.

The BBC reporter, Abdirahim Saeed, said on Tuesday that two Taliban officials had lost their blue checks since publication, but a third had gained one. Saeed said it wasn’t clear if Twitter revoked the badges or if the officials themselves deactivated the feature.

Twitter did not respond to Saeed’s requests for comment, but also Musk had fired most of the company’s communications team. This is all going great.