Taliban commander praises Twitter; Meta to identify government-affiliated accounts; Apple launches WeChat shop

Taliban chief applauds Twitter
Senior Taliban figure Anas Haqqani commended Elon Musk’s Twitter for its credibility and freedom of expression. Haqqani said that unlike Meta, Twitter does not have an intolerant policy.

The tweet from Haqqani was sent five days after Meta debuted Threads, a text-based public chat tool with a Twitter-like user interface. Threads saw 100 million sign-ups within a week of its introduction, despite Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri emphasizing that the service would not want to replace Twitter and would not aggressively pursue news and politics.

Labeling government-affiliated accounts with meta
An official from Meta revealed before an Australian investigation into foreign involvement that the company intends to identify government-affiliated accounts on its Twitter-like platform, Threads. Josh Machin, the director of public policy at Meta, said before the Senate committee, “Areas like labels for state-affiliated media and fact-checking are all areas where we see a lot of value, and it’s our aspiration to build that out expeditiously.”

Less than a week had passed since Meta introduced Threads before the revelation. While Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 resulted in the removal of tags from government-affiliated accounts, RT and Xinhua already have tags on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms indicating that they are state-controlled media outlets from Russia and China, respectively.

Apple launches a shop on WeChat
Apple just launched a shop on WeChat in China that also offers e-commerce, live streaming, and payment options. WeChat’s parent company, Tencent, said that customers will be able to purchase Apple goods from the shop, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Apple’s move comes as Chinese customers increasingly use social media sites like WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin, which is TikTok’s Chinese equivalent, to buy.