Facebook Adds New Feature to Protect Afghan Users from the Taliban

After the Taliban’s annexation of Afghanistan, Facebook announced on Thursday that they are introducing additional steps to safeguard susceptible individuals. According to a tweet by Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s director of cybersecurity policies, the company’s employees have been operating throughout August to do what they can to protect the security of its customers. As of July 2021, there are roughly 4,668,700 Facebook users in Afghanistan, accounting for approximately 11.8 percent of the country’s total inhabitants. Males make up the majority of these users (82.6%). The greatest disparity between males and females is in the age group 25-34, wherein men outnumber women by about 1,400,000 in number.

Since assuming control over Afghanistan, the Taliban has attempted to project a much more civilized image, although stories of violent attacks and deaths have weakened those attempts. Taliban gunmen have killed a relative of a DW journalist and have seriously wounded another of his family members. The Taliban are going door to door in an attempt to locate the reporter, who now operates in Germany. The social media platform is adding a function that allows individuals to lock down their accounts with a single click, prohibiting people outside of their circle from accessing their display photos or viewing their uploads.

Gleicher laid out Facebook’s objectives in a number of tweets. In order to safeguard Afghan Instagram users, he claimed the corporation is handing out notifications. In Afghanistan, individuals will no longer be able to browse or explore their friends’ lists on Facebook profiles, in order to prevent individuals from getting targeted.

After Joe Biden stood by his commitment to remove the US military, and stop a 2-decade-long conflict, the Taliban immediately took command of Afghanistan this month. The US has hastened the evacuation of thousands of individuals by cargo planes. New features on the social media platform were built using inputs from activists, reporters, as well as civil society organizations. Facebook has set up a dedicated operations center to deal with emerging concerns as they surface. Taliban is expected to take an extremely undemocratic action towards internet freedom, which is anticipated to hinder the usage of social media in the country significantly. Data regarding the social media market in the Middle East is widely available on various research platforms, if you wish to find more information, get in touch.