As the Taliban captured Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Sunday, a spokesman for the group uploaded five videos to its official YouTube page. The video, which lasted between two and three minutes, showed Taliban leaders congratulating the fighters on their victory.
“Now is the time to serve the country and give them peace and security,” Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said in a video in Pashtun sitting in front of senior officials in a curtained office.
Dozens of new pro-Taliban accounts that have surfaced on Twitter in recent days shared five videos. Within 24 hours, they together garnered over 500,000 views.
Researchers said the videos were part of an effort by the Taliban to establish their authority and legitimize their rule across Afghanistan through the use of social media. but by publishing Facebook and YouTube, the Taliban defied long bans by the platforms. Following government guidelines, social media companies largely designate the Taliban as a terrorist organization and do not allow Taliban content on their sites.
The group’s new presence on social media has put Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a difficult position. With governments around the world trying to figure out whether to officially recognize the Taliban as the rulers of Afghanistan, companies have no easy answers about whether to continue to ban the group online. Or not.
It has drawn criticism, as tech companies have suspended the accounts of some Republican lawmakers and others in recent months – seemingly more easily. Facebook and YouTube removed the accounts of Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem on Tuesday after the New York Times requested comment on these accounts. The companies did not explain why the accounts created in September were still on their platform after the group was banned.
“So far, the tech companies’ approach has not been very effective,” said Ayman Aziz, an independent researcher who has studied Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than a decade. “The Taliban is establishing a new presence online, with its new regime.”
Representatives for YouTube and Facebook said they had banned Taliban accounts and removed them if found. Twitter, which said this week that it prohibits glorification of violence on its platform, did not respond to a request for comment.
With the Taliban the question of what to allow online is only likely to escalate for social media companies. According to a Times analysis, since August 9, more than 100 new accounts and pages on Twitter and Facebook are claiming to be related to the Taliban or supporting their mission. The Times also found dozens of pro-Taliban accounts, including those of senior Taliban officials, who had been at the sites for months or years and lay dormant before becoming more active in the past week.
Several accounts are now working in concert to post videos, pictures and slogans about the Taliban regime. Often, they copy each other’s messages, spreading buzz about the administration of local townships and assuring that the Taliban will bring peace to the Afghans. Common thread in all activities: Praising the Taliban as the rightful rulers of Afghanistan.
“The use of social media has been deliberate by the Taliban,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies the online dissemination of information. “They know that on the world stage, they need to present a responsible public face to gain more legitimacy.”
The Taliban’s strategy on social media is similar to that of other terrorist groups that have tried to repair their reputations, the researchers said. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have used social media to show their softer side, with videos showing them celebrating popular holidays or giving to the poor.
The Taliban’s posts have gained a rapidly growing audience. As of Wednesday, its official Facebook page’s followers have jumped 120% to more than 49,000 users. On YouTube, the group’s videos have garnered tens of thousands of views, up from an average of less than 1,000 views previously.
Brookie said the optics could be difficult for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, no matter what they do, because of the Taliban’s reputation for extremist ideology.
“There is a very real debate going on about the values of allowing the Taliban to remain on social media as they move to shut down the rights of the groups they govern,” he said.
Inside companies, Facebook has activated an emergency response team in recent days to follow the situation in Afghanistan and assess the Taliban’s use of its products, including its messaging app WhatsApp, according to the social network’s employees. Employees participating in discussions at the companies said Twitter and YouTube tried to read among the diplomatic cables of world leaders whether the US government would build a genuine relationship with the Taliban.
Yet even when companies have removed Taliban accounts, the sanctions are still floundering. When Facebook this week blocked the WhatsApp account of Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, it distributed a new, still active WhatsApp account of another Taliban leader to journalists.
Aziz said the Taliban also easily avoided it by changing the spelling within their hashtags or key words and using encrypted apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to seed their messaging and asking volunteers to translate social media posts into multiple languages. They were there, Aziz said.
Any dragons seem to be accidentally engaging others who have posted content that pushes back against the Taliban. Facebook removed the article after Humsub editor Adnan Kakkar said news site Humsab published an article this month to counter a local newspaper column praising another Taliban founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar. .
“Immediately, we received a message that, ‘Your article has been removed due to standards on dangerous individuals and organizations,'” he said. Kakkar said his personal account and Humsub’s Facebook page were also suspended for 24 hours and livestreaming and advertising were banned for 60 days. When they challenged Facebook they said they didn’t get any response.
Given the difficulties facing the platforms, many new pro-Taliban accounts have cautioned against posting content that does not openly support violence or hate speech, which would violate the companies’ rules.
On Twitter, a new account by the name of the Taliban’s unrecognized state, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, surfaced on 8 August. The account, which has more than 400 followers, posted two videos showing military maneuvers by the Taliban. But neither video depicts violent or graphic images nor directly calls for violence.
Similarly, a Facebook page created six days ago, which listed itself as a grocery store but posted content specifically about the Taliban, has drawn considerable praise for the Mujahid.
“He is honest. God bless the Taliban,” read a post on the page. “We will hear his voice here too.”
At a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, the Mujahid was asked about freedom of expression. He accused Facebook of hypocrisy in promoting freedom of speech while censoring the group by removing the accounts of Taliban members.
“This question should be asked by those who claim to be promoters of freedom of expression who do not allow publication of foreign information,” Mujahid said.
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