I think the intended audience really depends on the
platform that's being used. Twitter is a public
platform tweeting in english they're looking for an
international audience. This is in the loop. I'm
christian Bryant with the taliban back in power in
Afghanistan. There are a lot of questions around how
legitimate their government rea is. And just as the
United Nations and other governments around the world
are figuring out how to treat taliban leadership, ma
social media platforms are grappling with some of the
same questions. They're part of the trickiness is when
do you define somebody as a world leader if they're not
recognized by the international community So there's a
lot of different aspects that are really complicating
this for the companies. Since the taliban claimed
control of Afghanistan, the group has really tried to
ramp up its efforts on facebook twitter and Youtube
currently facebook and Youtube banned the group and
accounts affiliated with and or supporting the taliban
to justify that decision. Facebook has cited the U.S.S.
Inclusion of the group on its specially designated
global terrorists list as well as the company's own
policy against dangerous organizations. Twitter has
also been the group but cited a slightly different
reason last week. The company explained it prohibits
glorification of violence on its platform And the
Taliban is using that to their advantage. Now they are
being much more sophisticated and knowing where the
lines are for community standards. They're being really
careful to not hit that imminent harm threshold th
many of these companies have that idea of imminent harm
widely came up after the January six riots at the US
Capitol. When you saw the decision to originally remo
president trump from the platform, came after the
capital was already overrun and there had already been
violence that was that was happening for many social
media sites. This current situa is a test of their
policies that were put in place because of those riots
and the reason president trump is still banned today.
But even by using a minute harm to defend their
decisions, banning trump was met with significant
backlash arguing the move is essentially censorship.
That is something social media networks want to avoid
doing to afghans if the taliban does in fact end up
being the official government of the country. Where do
you make that, where do you make that determination
that you're willing to take some of these things down
and now what does that mean In tension between giving
the afghan citizens information and access to
understanding what's happening not In March, when
the Myanmar military planned a government coup facebook
made the decision to ban the Myanmar military and bar
military owned businesses from advertising on the site.
The thing is in that situation, the decision was pre
clear because there was an obvious side which was anti
democratic, this is also an ever evolving space, these
constant the policies of what stays up, what comes down
or gets labeled This has been obviously a very extreme
and robust discussion, I expect it to stay one for many
years to come of where these lines should be. The
Taliban sort of gets this reputation of not being too
tech savvy. That might be partially because they banne
the Internet back in the 1990s. But the truth is
they've been using technology and social media sites to
their advantage, finding ways around the current bands
in place to get their messages out. Newsy's Tyl
Adkisson shows us how they're doing that and what image
they're working hard to portray online. The taliban has
been banned from networks like facebook and Youtube,
but over the years they have still found ways to refine
their image and spread their messages on Western socia
media platforms, experts told Newsy the group used this
technology to build political momentum that aided in
the takeover of Afghanistan and continues to do so to
try to calm the nation. Part of what's driving the
taliban social media push is rapid cell phone adoption
in Afghanistan. According to the World Bank, only about
one million Afghan citizens had access to a mobile
device in 2000 and five in the decade after the US
invasion that peaked at nearly 24 million by 2017, they
have gotten more pragmatic and smarter using
technological on top of that. When Taliban, we're in
Pakistan have been in Pakistan, we have had tremendou
support of campaign and propaganda from the state of
Pakistan itself. In terms of advice, technical advice
or theoretical advice on how to utilize the media
experts following Taliban social media channels during
the takeover told Newsy the group used platforms to
establish a sense of normalcy for those still in the
country and frame the group as more progressive than
previous versions of the taliban. In some cases, the
taliban even used WhatsApp to set up emergency medical
service and security hotlines for citizens. The
majority of sort of, I would say like military or
political content has been focused on security
provisions and reconciliation, showing people showing,
you know, Muhammad Karzai and lots of people who were
involved with the with the former government, even
local police chiefs, local provincial government,
assistant governors, vice gover um being happy and
safe. The Taliban is also using social media includi
Snapchat, tiktok twitter and WhatsApp to control their
public relations image on both domestic and
international fronts. I think the intended audience
really depends on the platform that's being used.
Twitter is a public platform and that's how you reach
out to a broader audience. That's how you reach out to
audiences beyond your borders tweeting in english. And
so it's pretty clear that they're looking for an
international audience as to whether the taliban's
messages trying to convince citizens there are
legitimate government experts told Newsy they were
skeptical about the current messaging. They're tryi
very hard uh, to look like, you know, a softer
squishier taliban then they wer in the past. Um, and I
think it's gonna be really important to see if that
actually plays out most experts and I'm going to agree
with them. I kind of doubt that that's the case. It'
hard for tiger to change their stripes. Tyler Adk
Newsy Chicago. Here to talk with us a bit more about
the taliban and social media is Newsy's Tyler Adkisson
Tyler, the news cycle moves so quickly. It's hard to
really keep track of a lot of things that happen onlin
Um one of which being the comparison between Pr
trump and the Taliban um what's being said there and
why is a former U.S. President being compared to the
taliban Well, I want to be honest with you what I saw
this comparison pop up at first I was incredibly
confused. I think that what this conversation about
trump not being allowed on these platforms while the
taliban is being allowed on there. I think that if
we're being honest a lot of that kind of discussion
about why does this inequity exist has come a lot from
conservative influencers online are trying to point
out something that on surface values surface level
seems to make a lot of sense like the former Presid
of the United States is in the same position as a
terrorist group that that they both cannot exist on
these platforms, whereas one still is and another one
isn't when trump is removed from social media back in
the winter of this year. He had been given several
warnings about, you know, do not try to stoke anything
that might come close to violence on the platform. You
know, facebook reached out to him personally and told
him that and despite that, he continued to say that the
election was fraudulent and ended up crossing the
threshold where he ended up breaking a rule that got
him taken down from the platform. The taliban has been
a bit more savvy about what they're posting online and
they're trying to show people getting along with the
taliban in the streets. They're showing former local
officials standing alongside the taliban, smiling and
looking like they are in a comfortable situation. It'
a pretty interesting dynamic, considering the taliba
had Back in the 1990s had banned Internet and now
they're using this social media platform and a and I
guess what we could call a pretty savvy way, I'm
curious to know, you know, what do we think will happen
down the line I mean, are we going to see the taliban
You know, get a, get a blue check at some point, um,
and they being recognized as like a legitimate
government from social media platforms, like what do we
see happening down the line here And you know, I think
that one thing that's important to look at here is that,
you know, there is the fact that these social media
companies are still trying to figure out how to deal
with the existing accounts that the taliban you may
have. But really the bigger question here is what
happens in the pages that are already in the hands of
the afghani government and those various ministries and
what not. And if they end up with them then yeah, you
know they're going to be in a physician in which they
may have a check mark. But you know there's so many, I
think what ifs in this situation that go beyond the
social media companies and some it may be a bit of a
deflection but some of it is important to keep in mind.
For instance I think that a lot of these companies are
trying to get a sense of what the United States is
going to say about this group, if the US recognizes
this as being a new government then social medi
companies are going to have a bit of a different kind
of approach to how they see diplomacy than if the U.S.
Government does it. And it's not just them two, it's
the international community as well. This is a global
situation where even though they're based in the US,
they're going to be looking to nations all over the
world to figure out do we let this group actually stay
up on the platform or not Because here's the other
thing, this is a bit of a double edged sword and the
fact that if you take these platforms down inevi
you are stopping information from getting out to afghan
citizens who may be looking to those platforms in order
to be able to figure out what is going on right now.
This is a decision that I don't think that any social
media company wants to be the sole one making the
decision because there's going to be backlash no matter
what you do here. I mean we've seen this with the trump
and taliban situation already. So I think really what
the question is going to be here because what happens
in that intersection between the U.S. Government,
social media companies and international communities
when it comes to figuring out whether or not this is
even going to be a government that will be recogni
in the future. Tyler Atkinson hitting the brakes on the
lightspeed news cycle to give us some context and
understanding, as always we appreciate you, man. Thank
you when you're back, we've still got our focus on
Afghanistan and the effort to evacuate American
citizens and Afghan allies. Yeah