Facebook has implemented a series of measures to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban. First of all, the social network allows the most vulnerable Afghans to lock their accounts with one click. This lock blocks content shared by the user and the friends list. Facebook thus hopes to protect those targeted by the terrorist group.
A few days after the capture of Kabul, the Taliban started looking for people who had worked with American and NATO forces. Despite their promises, the insurgents are clearly seeking to take revenge on their opponents. Individuals who occupied positions of responsibility within the Afghan armed forces, police and intelligence units are in the crosshairs of the Taliban.
In this context, Facebook has implemented several measures to work to protect Afghans targeted by the Islamist group. “During the past week, our teams have been working day and night to do everything possible to help keep people safe,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s director of safety regulations, explains in a tweet.
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Facebook advises Afghans to lock their accounts
Facebook thus allows Afghans to lock their online account with one click. This feature prevents people who are not in a user’s contacts from uploading or sharing their profile picture or seeing content posted on their feed.
Based on information from human rights defenders, journalists and NGOs, the social network fears that the Taliban are using data available on Facebook to compile a list of opponents.
“We have also temporarily removed the ability to view the “friends list” a user and search there for profiles for Facebook accounts in Afghanistan ”, continues Nathaniel Gleicher. In the same vein, the Californian group will inform Instagram users of the options available to protect their account through notifications.
A few days ago, Facebook firmly banned all content related to the Taliban. Carrying out their threats, the group then shut down a WhatsApp group set up by the new masters of Afghanistan.
