Ars Technica reports that FaceBook-owned WhatsApp has closed down a complaint hotline set up by the Taliban to allow residents to report violence, looting, or other public-order concerns. In the past — as for example, when it took Kunduz in 2016 — the Taliban publicized the hotline when it captured Kabul.
FaceBook acknowledged that it had blocked the number on Tuesday, as part of shutting down “official Taliban channels.” The move was criticized as “absurd” and “unhelpful":
“Preventing communication between people and the Taliban doesn’t help Afghans, it is just grandstanding,” said Ashley Jackson, a former Red Cross and Oxfam aid worker in Afghanistan, and author of a book on the Taliban and its relationship to Afghan civilians.
“If the Taliban all of a sudden can’t use WhatsApp, you’re just isolating Afghans, making it harder for them to communicate in an already panicky situation. [WhatsApp’s actions] are really misguided.”
