Selective WhatsApp ban on hardliners hits Taliban's functioning in Afghanistan
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The workings of Afghanistan's Taliban government have been reportedly curtailed due to ban on WhatsApp accounts operated by hardline operators as part of the US sanctions.
Such bans or temporarily deactivation of WhatsApp accounts of Taliban officialshave become widespread in recent months, New York Times reported.
What does it mean?
These interruptions highlightthe consequences of international sanctions on Afghanistan's isolated Taliban government.
The United States, as part of sanctions imposed on Talibancriminalises any form of support for the Taliban. The impact of this has been deemed selective over the years.
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How the ban takes place?
WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, scans group names, descriptions and group profile photos on the messaging app to identify users among the Taliban and blocks their accounts, according to a Meta spokesman quoted by New York Times.
What does it mean?
The ban has affected the Taliban menwho relied on WhatsApp’s voice message feature, with which they could send messages and listen to the verbal instructions from their commanders with the press of a button.
Also watch |US, UK and UN criticise the Taliban's ban on Afghan women from universities
The Taliban’s reliance on WhatsApp became more far-reaching as smartphone use proliferated and high-speed internet networks improved across Afghanistan by the end of US withdrawal from the nation.
As the Taliban consolidated control and settled into governance,WhatsApp central to their official communications.
How WhatsApp has become the medium for Taliban's functioning?
Taliban's government departments use WhatsApp groups to disseminate information among all organs of the government.
Officials rely on WhatsApp groups to distribute statements to journalists and transmit official communiqués between ministries. Security forces also plan and coordinate raids on Islamic State cells by communicating through WhatsApp.
Overall, since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the popularity and accessibility of WhatsApp among the group’s ranks has grown rapidly. Former Taliban fighters began using their smartphones around the clock, no longer afraid that Western forces could use the signal to track or target them in drone strikes as was the case when the US was still stationed there.
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