The spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has altered the ministry’s name in a recent post on social media platform X, apparently to circumvent content moderation policies.
In a post written in Pashto regarding the arrest of six university students on blasphemy charges, Saif-ul-Islam Khyber inserted slashes between letters in the ministry’s name, rendering it as: “Am/robelm/a/roof aw nah/yi an el/m/unkar aw shikayatoon awreedlo wezarat” — a distorted version of “Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and Listening to Complaints.”
This marks the first known instance in which the ministry’s spokesperson has avoided using the ministry’s full name on X. It suggests that the platform may be actively monitoring or restricting content that includes direct references to Taliban institutions.
Previously, Facebook and other platforms introduced similar restrictions on accounts using the Taliban’s name following the group’s return to power in 2021. In response, many users adopted tactics such as altered spellings, inserted punctuation, and spacing to bypass algorithmic detection.
The Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has been widely criticised for enforcing decrees that have severely restricted civil liberties, particularly the rights of women and girls, across Afghanistan. International human rights groups have consistently condemned the ministry’s role in implementing orders issued by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Under the group’s Promotion of Virtue law, the ministry’s so-called morality police are empowered to monitor citizens’ dress, behaviour, and beliefs. They routinely detain individuals accused of violating the group’s interpretation of Islamic conduct.
