The decision of banning Taliban- related content on Facebook has been highly welcomed by the Afghan public, and many have started asking Twitter to take the same action. Many Afghans and internationals around the globe have started a new trend, #BanTaliban.
The Afghans, who started the trend, mention repeatedly in their tweets, that the Taliban is a terrorist group and they spread their anger through social media they don’t want to see the Taliban’s anger on Twitter same as on Facebook and Instagram.
According to research by the University of Regina, the Taliban deployed Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and most of all Twitter in the brief time it took to retake Afghanistan.
The report studies 63 accounts claimed by the Taliban leadership, spokespersons, and avowed members from April 1 to September 16, 2021. These accounts had more than 2 million followers on Twitter in September 2021. As of May 8, 2022, Taliban content reaches more than 3.3 million accounts.
According to the research, the Taliban tweeted well over 100,000 times between April and mid-September 2021. A supportive social media ecosystem of at least 126,000 Twitter accounts then amplified these messages, retweeting Taliban-authored content nearly one million times.
The Taliban-related pages got banned by Meta on Wednesday and The Taliban leaders ask Meta that this is an act against the freedom of expression and that they should reactivate Taliban-related accounts.
Afghan journalists say that the Taliban has restricted the freedom of speech in Afghanistan by beating, imprisoning, and threatening journalists and now they want freedom of speech for themselves.
The last time this week, Australian journo Lynne O’Donnell, who posted an apology for reporting on forced marriages in Afghanistan, said she was forced to apologize by the Taliban.
Foreign journalist Lynne O’Donnell said the Taliban in Afghanistan asked her to tweet an apology or go to jail for articles on forced marriages by Taliban commanders.
Meanwhile, the Afghans have highly welcomed the decision of Meta and started asking Twitter with #BanTaliban hashtags to close the Taliban-related accounts on their platform.
Written By Saeedullah Safi
