Facebook continues ban of Taliban-related content on its platforms

According to Insider, Facebook has been systematically identifying and eliminating any content related to the Taliban since they took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Α Facebook spokeswoman said that the Taliban is legally forbidden from using Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp because it is a terrorist organization sanctioned under US law.

‘’Facebook does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations. Regardless of who holds power, we will take the appropriate action against accounts and content that breaks our rules’’, he stated.

They further stated that Facebook disables accounts controlled by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibits users from representing, supporting, or endorsing the organization. Furthermore, because Pashto and Dari are the most widely spoken languages in Afghanistan, the company claims to have a "dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of the local context" assisting in identifying and alerting the company to the platform's ongoing issues.

‘’We are relying on that policy to proactively take down anything that we can that might be dangerous or that is related to the Taliban in general. Now, this situation is evolving rapidly, and with it I'm sure the risk will evolve as well. We are going to have to modify what we do and how we do it to respond to those changing risks as they happen’’, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram said.