Anas Haqqani, a Taliban official, said Twitter is more committed to "free speech" than its rivals. Haqqani's father founded the Haqqani Network, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. The Taliban was designated a terrorist group more than a decade earlier, following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "The Taliban wanted to counter their propaganda and that's why we too focused ourselves on Twitter," the Taliban member said. "Social media is a powerful tool to change public perception."

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Persons: Anas Haqqani, Haqqani's, Haqqani, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, El Pais, Critics, Musk, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Hedayatullah Hedayat, Abdul Haq Hammad Organizations: Taliban, Twitter, Haqqani Network, Service, El, Haqqani, Radio Free, Radio Liberty, National Counterterrorism Center, Meta, Facebook, BBC Locations: Wall, Silicon, Turkey, India, Radio Free Europe, Afghanistan, WhatsApp