Facebook Tags Taliban As Terrorist Group, Bans Its Content From Its Platforms
The social media giant, Facebook has designated the Taliban as a terrorist group and banned its content from its various platforms including WhatsApp.
But despite the company putting prohibitions under its rules against dangerous organizations, some members of the Taliban have reportedly continued to use WhatsApp, which is Facebook’s end-to-end encrypted messaging service. By using this service, they have communicated directly with Afghanis.
A Facebook Inc (FB.O) spokesperson said that the company is closely keeping a track of the situation in the country and that WhatsApp would take strict action on any of the accounts found to have a link with sanctioned organizations in Afghanistan. This could be the removal of the account too.
On the contrary, the Taliban is openly using other social media platforms like Twitter Inc. Taliban spokesman who has hundreds of thousands of followers is tweeting updates during the organization’s takeover of Kabul.
When Twitter was asked about the same, the company pointed to policies which it has made for violent organizations and hateful conduct. It skipped answering Reuter’s questions about how it makes its classifications. As per the rules of Twitter, the social media platform does not allow groups that promote terrorism or violence against civilians.
The return of the Taliban has caused fear among the people of Kabul. It is likely to snatch away freedom of speech and human rights, especially women’s rights, and that the country could become a place for prospering of global terrorism once again.
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Taliban officials have, however, issued statements saying they want peaceful international relations. They have also promised to protect Afghans.
Recently, US President, Joe Biden has broken silence on the Taliban’s takeover. He has stated that he stands by his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan during the 15-minute-long speech. He said, “Our current military mission in Afghanistan will be short in time and focused on its objectives: Get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible.”
