Social media facing questions about Taliban content
The Taliban take over in Afghanistan is forcing social media companies to rapidly decide how to handle the new rulers’ and their opponents’ content. Facebook said it is keeping existing ban on content that promotes the Afghan Taliban in place, a spokesperson told US website thehill.com that also reports YouTube has similar ban on Afghan Taliban accounts
Facebook has a “dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context”. The team is monitoring “emerging issues.”
Facebook’s policy for Afghan Taliban content applies across all its platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp, with monitoring of the latter being difficult as it is encrypted. Facebook told the BBC that the company would take action if it found accounts on the app to be linked to the group.
“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation policies. This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them,” a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC.
Twitter referred to its policies against violent organisations and hateful conduct saying Twitter does not allow groups that promote terrorism or violence against civilians.
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