News World Facebook bans Taliban, designates it as 'terrorist organization'

Facebook bans Taliban, designates it as 'terrorist organization'

Facebook has said that the Taliban are sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and hence it has banned them from their services under Dangerous Organisation Policies.

Social media giant Facebook has designated Taliban as 'terrorist organisation' and has banned its content. The US-based social media tool has said that under 'Dangerous Organisation Policies' it has banned Taliban. The company says it has a dedicated team of Afghan experts to monitor and remove content linked to the insurgent group.

"The Taliban are sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation Policies. This means we remove accounts maintained by/on behalf of the Taliban& ban their praise, support, &representation," ANI quoted Facebook.

Facebook spokesperson has said, "We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us about emerging issues on the platform."

The social media giant said it does not make decisions about the recognition of national governments but instead follows the "authority of the international community". Facebook highlighted that the policy applies to all of its platforms, including its flagship social media network, Instagram and WhatsApp.

However, there are reports that the Taliban is using WhatsApp to communicate. According to media reports, Facebook would take action if it found accounts on the app to be linked to the group. 

The brutal war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.

US President Joe Biden has also warned the Taliban and promised that "response will be swift and forceful" if the terror group attacks US interests. He asked them not to disrupt or threaten the evacuation of thousands of American diplomats and Afghan translators at the Kabul airport. The response to any attack would be "swift and forceful," Biden said in a televised address from the White House. 

"We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary," he said. Biden kept emphasizing that he will not repeat the same mistakes again. Talking about America's perspective over Afghanistan, he said, "Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation building, it was never supposed to be creating a unified centralized democracy. Out only intetion in Afghanistan remains what it's always been -- preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland".

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