Silicon Valley tech companies strive to find an appropriate Human Rights approach to deal with Taliban

World-renowned tech companies, such as Google and Facebook, are still unsure about
the destiny of Afghanistan’s governmental social media accounts after the Taliban group took
over power in the country on 15th August 2021. These same companies had previously
pledged to combat terrorism and gross human rights violations by hindering the usage of social
media by criminal and terrorist organisations. However, as the Taliban consolidates its power
and legitimacy in Afghanistan, tech companies still do not have a common agreement on how
to handle the growing evidence of human rights violations committed by the group and its
impact on the presence of the group in social media. For example, the Global Internet Forum
to Counter Terrorism, an industry group launched by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and
Microsoft “to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms”, has
not taken a position on how to address the regime’s communications on encrypted platforms
like WhatsApp. While tech companies struggle to decide the destiny of the Taliban’s online
presence, Human Rights experts fear that this delay might turn things worse, enabling the
regime to block posts from other users that reveal human rights atrocities, for instance. For
further information, please visit: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/18/silicon-valley-
taliban-approach-506039