Conspiracy lover Matt Le Tissier asks why Twitter banned Donald Trump but not the Taliban

Former Southampton and England footballer Matt Le Tissier can't understand why Donald Trump was censored on social media but extremist group the Taliban are still on the platform

Dan Burnham Senior Sports Reporter/Content Editor

08:24, 22 Sep 2022Updated 08:27, 22 Sep 2022

Matt Le Tissier reacts to a shot during the Pro Am for the BMW PG Championship at Wentworth on May 23, 2018 in Virginia Water, England

Twitter's actions don't add up for Matt Le Tissier(Image: Getty Images)

Conspiracy mad Matt Le Tissier has questioned why Twitter banned Donald Trump but not the Taliban.

The ex-Southampton and England footballer, 53, linked up with former politician Nigel Farage, 58 on a live stream this week to discuss their shared interests - "Covid, Trump, vaccines, Brexit, free speech etc", as outlined in the video's description.

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The disgraced 45th President of the United States didn't take long to come up in conversation, with Le Tissier beginning on Gettr: "We need platforms where you can speak freely about things and of course, with all the caveats that that bring. Because nobody wants to be given platforms to violent extremists and all that kind of stuff which brings me to my first point actually.

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"It amazes me that Twitter was allowing the Taliban to still be on the platform whilst simultaneously banning Donald Trump. How does that square with any real life expectations of people from social media point of view? Surely that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever heard isn’t it?"

Trump was permanently suspended by the blue bird app in January 2021 while he was still in the White House office after protestors stormed the Capitol Building to dispute his election loss to Joe Biden. His friend Farage suggested he knew the real answer to Le Tissier's question, though.

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Has Le Tissier got a point? Let us know in the comments section.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in support of Doug Mastriano for Governor of Pennsylvania and Mehmet Oz for US Senate at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on September 3, 2022

Donald Trump was banned from the blue bird app in January 2021(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

He replied: "Well look, the truth of it is that 2016 Brexit and then that rolling revolution into the Trump win in November of that year, none of that would have happened, none of that could have happened, without social media platforms.

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"For me it was YouTube. It was my speeches in the European Parliament being studiously ignored by the BBC, the Times of London, and everybody else. Suddenly, in 2007/8 onwards, YouTube starts to get my speeches out there, I start to build a national, or international I suppose in some ways, profile.

Taliban forces are seen after conducting an operation against Daesh in Kandahar, Afghanistan on November 15, 2021

Extremist group the Taliban still have a platform on Twitter(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"And the same with Trump. Trump dominated Twitter, finished up with 80million followers on the platform and the first Trump tweet of the day would dominate the day’s debate. He was leading the agenda.

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"So these west coast billionaires in the USA suddenly realised the very platforms that they’d created had led to political victories for people they couldn’t stand and something had to be done."

Twitter said it "permanently suspended" Trump's account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence". It said the decision was made after close review of tweets from the account, in the wake of the US Capitol riots, which the Republican politician was accused of inciting by Democrats.

Trump called the people who stormed the US Capitol "patriots" after the incident, in which four civilians and a police officer died. Twitter said tweets he subsequently sent were "in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy".

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