Zabihullah mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, emerged from the shadows Tuesday. He spent part of his first press conference ranting about Facebook. In which he accused Facebook of violating Islamist groups' right to free speech and banning them from all its platforms. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, Mujahid gave vague assurances to reporters that women's rights would be protected within Islam's limits. He then attacked the social media company for removing user accounts tied to him by The New York Times on Monday.
Mujahid suggested that journalists should ask Facebook employees who claim to be supporters of freedom of expression why the Islamist movement in Afghanistan has been banned from posting on any Facebook-owned social media platform, including Instagram or WhatsApp.
Taliban mock Facebook in their first press conference. It's surreal. pic.twitter.com/hYUAeIdqHk Evan DeSimone (@MediaEvan) August 17, 2021
Mujahid had been speaking to journalists on behalf of the Taliban for almost two decades, but he was never photographed or seen by them until Tuesday's appearance in the Afghan government media center. This occurred after the Talibans captured capital on Saturday. One reporter pointed out that Mujahid was sitting in the same briefing room as Dawa Khan Meenapal last week, who was the spokesperson for Afghanistan's government. He was then killed by Taliban gunmen.
Facebook spokeswoman, though she declined to respond to the criticisms from her Taliban counterpart, provided a statement explaining the reasons for the ban. U.S. law has designated the Taliban as a terrorist group and banned them from our services. According to the statement, we will remove any accounts that are maintained by or for the Taliban, and ban praise, support and representation of them. The company claims that the team of Afghanistan experts who speak Pashto and Dari, and are experts in the local context, makes decisions about what content to take down. However, they do not have the power to decide the government of any country, but rather the international community. No matter who is in power, we will take appropriate action against accounts or content that violates our rules.
Facebook is "proactively" working to take down any content promoting the Taliban, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri tells @emilychangtv https://t.co/VCvX1DhSvg pic.twitter.com/8orSR47J4V Bloomberg Technology (@technology) August 17, 2021
