Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have put in place countermeasures to protect the accounts of Afghan citizens and thus prevent them from being targeted by the Taliban. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has launched a “one-click tool” for users located in Afghanistan to block their accounts from viewing the outside world. Only those who have already accepted the friendship on the platform will be able to see what is published or shared. This was reported on Twitter by the head of security policies, Nathaniel Gleicher. Facebook has also temporarily removed the ability to view friend lists of Afghan citizens’ accounts.
Twitter has instead announced that it is in contact with those who work in support of Afghan civil society. It is also working with the ‘Internet Archive’ to speed up requests to delete old tweets that could put in trouble those who have sided against the Taliban in the past. The goal, in this case, is the temporary suspension of accounts until their owners can log in again and then delete certain compromising content.
Finally, a LinkedIn spokesperson said the Microsoft-owned professional networking site hid its users’ links in Afghanistan so that outside users wouldn’t be able to see them. The giants of the Net, in this way, want to avoid that the Islamic extremists, in power since August 15th after the capture of Kabul, are able to use social networks to trace the dissent against them and identify the voices opposed to the new regime. As reported by Amnesty International, in fact, thousands of Afghans, including academics, journalists and human rights defenders, are at risk of suffering Taliban reprisals.