Social platforms wrestle with what to do about the Taliban – By Taylor Hatmaker (Techcrunch) / Aug 20 2021
With the hasty U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan underway after two decades occupying the country, social media platforms have a complex new set of policy decisions to make.
The Taliban has been social-media-savvy for years, but those companies will face new questions as the notoriously brutal, repressive group seeks to present itself as Afghanistan’s legitimate governing body to the rest of the world. Given its ubiquity among political leaders and governments, social media will likely play an even more central role for the Taliban as it seeks to cement control and move toward governing.
Facebook has taken some early precautions to protect its users from potential reprisals as the Taliban seizes power. Through Twitter, Facebook’s Nathaniel Gleicher announced a set of new measures the platform rolled out over the last week. The company added a “one-click” way for people in Afghanistan to instantly lock their accounts, hiding posts on their timeline and preventing anyone they aren’t friends with from downloading or sharing their profile picture.
3/ Many of these were informed by feedback from activists, journalists and civil society groups. I'm also including links to some useful online security guides for journalists and activists from civil society experts.
— Nathaniel Gleicher @ngleicher@infosec.exchange (@ngleicher) August 19, 2021
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