Despite seizing power, Taliban is still banned from Facebook

The Taliban’s content will remain banned on Facebook, the company confirmed to Sky News on Tuesday, as the group is considered a dangerous terrorist organization under the site’s policies.

The Taliban seized power over Afghanistan nearly 20 years after the U.S. war with the country ended. However, the organization is listed under a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Hence, not only are financial transactions and agreements with the party forbidden, but Facebook believes this is enough to ban the organization from its billion-dollar networking site.

“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. laws, and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a Facebook spokesperson told Sky News.

“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 to emerging issues on the platform,” the social media giant added.

Facebook emphasized that the ban also applies to all its subsidiaries, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Yet, it remains unclear whether it’s enough to reject the Taliban’s presence on the tech giant if its control over Afghanistan becomes internationally recognized.

Back in 2001, the United States ousted the Taliban from the country, and took over the region, imposing a western-backed government that held control for 20 years.

Now, it seems like someone hit the restart button on the Afghanistan-U.S. war.

The fundamentalist Islamic group are now in control of the country again. The U.S. is currently evacuating its troops and officials, while Afghans are racing to buy a one-way ticket out of the country, as fear takes over the nation.

In the past, the Taliban utilized social media to voice their agenda. As the Islamic organization begins overrunning city after city, a wave of challenges for technology firms begin to appear on how to deal with content related to the group.

While the terrorist organization reeks control over Afghanistan, only time will tell if they’ll be allowed to do the same on social media platforms.