Afghanistan: Facebook bans the Taliban from its platforms
Facebook decided to ban Taliban leaders from its platforms on Tuesday, August 17.
OLIVIER DOULIERY AFP / File
Text by: Altin Lazaj
3 min
Facebook has decided to ban the Taliban and all content that supports them, a spokesperson for the social network told the BBC.
Its Instagram and WhatsApp subsidiaries will do the same.
The company sanctions the Taliban as a "
terrorist organization
".
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Deleting an organization's official account is easy.
But removing content from people who support the Taliban is a bit more complex.
Shortly after the
capture of Kabul by the Taliban
, Facebook decided to delete the accounts managed by the new men in power in Afghanistan.
The network affirms, Tuesday, August 17, to have set up a team of Afghan experts, who speak the languages of the country - Dari and Patchto - and who are familiar with the local context.
They are responsible for detecting messages from those who praise
or support the
Taliban
.
For its subsidiary WhatsApp, it's a little more complicated: the platform does not have the ability to access the content of users' exchanges because the messaging services are protected by end-to-end encryption.
In contrast, WhatsApp can block the accounts of people or organizations identified as close to the Taliban.
"
These social networks have the freedom to silence us
"
This Facebook policy can inspire other popular platforms like Twitter or even YouTube, which would deal a blow to the propaganda of the Taliban present on social networks for ten years. "
If this decision is necessary to deprive the Taliban of important communication tools, it once again shows the power of social networks over our lives,
" said Benoît de Saint-Sernin, director general of the European School of Intelligence economy of Versailles.
“
Facebook is now acting as an international censor.
One day, he
suppresses Donald Trump's account
, today that of the Taliban because the latter take power and become a political actor.
The danger of all this is that all of us, companies, politicians, organizations, etc., use these different networks a lot.
But since these tools belong to economic actors motivated by money, these people one day decide whether you have the right to be there or not to be there.
These networks have the freedom to silence us if they want, and that is a very great danger,
”Benoît de Saint-Sernin analyzes.
Facebook confirms it bans all Taliban-related content https://t.co/yVOkTI5RGQ
- BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 17, 2021
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