Facebook has closed a WhatsApp hotline set up by the Taliban to respond to possible complaints from Afghans, according to an article in the Financial times published this Tuesday.
“We are forced to comply with the sanctions laws of the United States. This includes banning accounts posing as official Taliban accounts, ”a WhatsApp spokesperson said.
The Taliban, who seized power in Kabul on Sunday, announced last week that they had set up a special number for the population to contact them. “We request more information from the relevant US authorities given the evolution of the situation in Afghanistan,” the messenger added, declining to give further details. For their part, the Taliban criticized Facebook for freedom of expression during its first press conference, which was broadcast online on Tuesday.
I questioned the respect of the human rights, the porte-parole des Talibans, Zabihullah Mujahid replied that «the question is posed by the ceux that assures the guarantees of the freedom of expression, more than the author of the publication of toutes the informations. The Facebook company, it is they who should be asked the question. Decisions by major platforms in terms of moderating content posted by the Taliban will be closely watched, as the Islamist group has announced that it will form a government.
“The Taliban are considered a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned all of our services from them in accordance with our regulations on dangerous organizations,” a spokesman for the social media giant recalled Tuesday morning. The platform said it has a team of dedicated experts, who speak the country’s languages, to help them identify potential problems.
“Regardless of who has power, we will take appropriate measures against accounts and content that violate our rules,” the spokesperson insisted. Twitter and YouTube have similar regulations, although Twitter does not a priori ban the Taliban, except in cases of content that violates its rules on violence or content manipulation. Zabihullah Mujahid, took to Twitter on Sunday to announce that the Taliban had “entered the city of Kabul to provide security.”