Facebook said it will continue to ban Taliban content from its platforms as it considers the insurgent group a terrorist organization that has seized power in Afghanistan.
Facebook said it has a team of content moderators whose main focus is to keep a close watch on images, videos, and other related content about the Taliban. The moderators are also tasked with taking down content related to the group.
Facebook's dedicated team of Afghanistan experts are native Pashto and Dari speakers who help identify and alert the company on emerging issues on the platform.
According to a Facebook representative, the Taliban has been categorized as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and they're banned from using the social network's services under the Dangerous Organization policies, Fox Business and CNBC said Wednesday.
The Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan brings new challenges for technology companies on how to deal with social media content related to the group.
Facebook, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, has banned the Taliban for many years, the representative said, adding the company does not decide whether it should recognize governments. Instead, it complies with laws that govern the international community.
Facebook emphasized that the policy applies to all its platforms including WhatsApp and Instagram, but some reports have it that the Taliban are still using WhatsApp to communicate. WhatsApp is an end-to-end encryption platform, meaning Facebook cannot monitor what people share on it.
Social media play a crucial role in the Taliban's advocacy in rallying support for their cause, Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said.
The action and the decision made by Facebook will have "a direct impact on the lives of the many people who find themselves under Taliban rule," Brooking, who is co-author of "Like War: The Weaponization of Social Media," said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Meanwhile, Twitter's standards were called into question after users said a key Taliban official has been using the platform to provide updates about the insurgents' advance within Afghanistan while former U.S. President Donald Trump's account remains permanently banned.
