« Social networks and instant messaging, both for the Taliban and for other terrorist groups, have become the main method of proselytism, recruitment and communication. And the truth is that Europol and Interpol have been united arab emirates number data fighting terrorism on the platforms for years and have not succeeded… There was an attempt at collaboration between Telegram and the authorities, where hundreds of groups and channels were closed, but it has once again become the main communication mechanism», says, for his part, Carlos Seisdedos, an expert in cyber intelligence and forensic expertise, in statements to Teknautas .
Seisdedos believes that, even if they had tried, the American technology giants would not have been able to keep the Taliban on a short leash on messaging apps such as WhatsApp. However, the case is quite different with conventional social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, which banned Donald Trump himself just a few months ago after the assault on the Capitol.
" It would have been impossible to control WhatsApp to 'monitor' the Taliban's progress. In the case of Facebook it is different, they should have put up barriers, and they should have the capacity to detect and block this type of content ," says Seisdedos.
In light of the controversy surrounding WhatsApp's role in the Taliban's takeover of Kabul, a spokesperson for the messaging app has had to come forward to clarify in statements to Vice that the app is unable to take action on many occasions because it cannot read the content of the messages being sent (the app uses, after all, end-to-end encryption). The spokesperson assures, however, that WhatsApp complies with the US sanctions law and if it detects people or organisations that are subject to sanctions using the app, immediate action is taken (including, of course, banning accounts).
Facebook , WhatsApp's parent company, has also spoken out in recent hours to confirm that, while the Taliban are considered a terrorist group, it is removing accounts and content directly related to this organization from its platform.