How The Taliban Is Utilizing Social Media In The Afghanistan Takeover

The Taliban is banned from most major social media platforms, but it’s still utilizing those online spaces to spread their messaging.

The Taliban has been banned from networks like Facebook and YouTube but over the years they still found ways to refine their image and spread their messages on western social media platforms. Experts told Newsy the group used this technology to build political momentum that aided in the takeover of Afghanistan and continues to do so to try to calm the nation.  Part of what's driving the Taliban's social media push is rapid cell phone adoption in Afghanistan. According to the World Bank, only about 1 million Afghan citizens had access to a mobile device in 2005. In the decade after the U.S. invasion, that peaked at nearly 24 million by 2017.