The rapid advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan also presents social media with difficult choices. They cannot legally facilitate them, but the Muslim extremists run the country and accuse them of censorship.
A Taliban spokesman accused WhatsApp of censorship at a press conference after the organization’s accounts were banned. These included a helpline where citizens could ask questions about the new policy as the extremist group takes power in the country.
However, Facebook, WhatsApp’s parent company, is formal: US sanctions require it to ban accounts that impersonate the Taliban. Consequently, it removes all content of the organization on its platforms.
YouTube takes the same stance, saying it has been disallowing Taliban accounts for longer than today. Twitter has not responded to that question to Reuters but does say that it observes rules around violence glorification, regardless of which accounts do so.
But the rapid advance of the Taliban makes it difficult for social media. Facebook was also asked about what it does with official pages of the Afghan government. They represent the country but are now also de facto administered by the Taliban.
According to Reuters, Facebook points to a statement in which it respects the international community’s authority on recognizing governments. In other words: if the government in Afghanistan is recognized, those channels will be allowed.
The matter is made even more complex by the attitude of the US. Because the Afghan Taliban is not formally a terrorist group. For example, she is not on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The US has also spoken with the Taliban in recent years under President Trump and tried to legitimize the group with a view to a possible peace deal in the country with the (then) imminent withdrawal of the Americans.
For example, a photo of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, today one of the top men within the Taliban, is currently circulating on social media during a meeting in Doha in September 2020. THEREFORE, the US prohibits American companies from facilitating the Taliban and reached out to the group under Trump.
That combination of factors means that American social media currently prefers not to see the Taliban show up on their platforms simply because they follow US rules. But in the meantime, the Taliban accuses those platforms of censorship now that they de facto run the country and meanwhile want to adopt a more moderate image.
