Posted on 08/20/2021 12:20:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin
[T]hey are using thousands of Twitter accounts — some official and others anonymous...
Many of the Taliban’s critics and supporters of the U.S.-backed government have gone underground.
The Taliban have been able to post much of what they want online. ...The militants’ efforts have focused on Twitter, where the Taliban are not directly banned.
Some Taliban opponents have issued rallying cries. By contrast, others have fallen silent and scrubbed their accounts of material that could put them in danger. A female soccer player this week warned her former teammates to take photos down.
A teacher at Nangarhar University in Jalalabad who requested anonymity said that a large number of his students who had taken part in anti-Taliban campaigns had deactivated their social media accounts.
Under the U.S.-backed government, cell towers went up across the country. Mobile phone users jumped to more than 22 million in 2019 from just one million in 2005... Experts estimate around 70 percent of the population has access to a mobile phone.
Today, the Taliban would struggle to block messages from the outside, like China and Russia do, without time and outside help. In place of deletions and bans...
Many of the voices that would once argue back against Taliban posts have gone silent for fear of retribution. Digital rights groups have said that many people with ties to the former government or the United States have closed social media profiles, left chat groups and deleted old messages.
The Nangarhar University teacher said he didn’t believe the new generation that grew up in Kabul under the ousted government would easily accept the Taliban’s rule, and he expected new waves of online resistance before long.
“I fear that the Taliban will restrict social media soon because of it,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
bkmk
“Online resistance”. I’m sure the Taliban are quaking in their sandals over that. People need to get it: being a keyboard kommando will only get you so far, and internet tough guys lose when caps start getting busted.
Facebook might want to block user images from being sent to Afghanistan.
Well, they are fast learners.
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