we wilding program, tracking them by gps and radio links. the buys on was here before 100 years ago. here they have they own roles. it's a chain for this. we said we need 1015 years from now to demonstrate today, own roles in the forest in bio diversity and carpet in the area and the bison. already breeding, born into the wild, one of the cars is seen here. this, we wilding program does look successful. the face of the bears is causing constant nation hunting lobby on one side. conservation is on the other. andrew simmons al jazeera in the copy, the mountains of romania. ah, hello, that this is al jazeera and he's the headlines depended on says to high profile ice . ok, members were killed in a drone strike in eastern afghanistan. the taliban told royces that should have

been informed of the move fast and that 3 others were also injured. they talked followed 10 days explosion and cub level that was claimed by ice. ok. i am not going to talk about specific capabilities isis may of last and in the strike they lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and they've got one wanted and the fact that 2 of these individuals are no longer longer walking on the face of the earth, that's a good thing. a good thing for the people who have danced. and it's a good thing for our troops in our forces at that airfield and i think i'm just going to leave it there. while. meanwhile, the u. s. embassy and cobble is warning americans against traveling to the airport because the security dangers the pentagon says specific credible threats against the facility remain. the united arab emirates, vice president says he is met around foreign minister on the sidelines of a regional summit and baghdad. iraq is hosting the gathering in an effort to promote peace and reconciliation in the middle east. its aiming to improve ties between saudi arabia and ron. russia has reported its highest monthly corona virus

death toll. since the pandemic began revise government figures showing more than 50000 people died from covered 1900 or related causes. in july line china has dismissed the declassified u. s. report on the origins of colbert 19 calling it political manipulation and shows intelligence. agencies are divided over where the virus began, but agree it was developed as a buyer weapon. according to virus, was fast detected in the chinese city were hung in 2019. meanwhile, demonstrators in france have returned to the streets for 7th weekend to protest against a new cobit 19 health tall system. opponent say the pass infringes on their personal freedom. well, those are the headlines. i'll be back here on out there with a news out for you off the inside story. news, news,

news. news, the band, the more grace and the question is social media faces over how to treat the carla bar. how is the group now in control of afghanistan, promoting its message online? and how should take johns handle the content? this is inside stored. i use hello, welcome to the program. i haven't seen the taliban says it's changed and it's promised respect for women's rights protection for the afghan people and peaceful international relations. one powerful tool it is increasingly turning to, to get that message across is social media. platforms own is now face

a challenge in deciding how to deal with the group as it prepares to form afghan astounds new government. while some platforms have banned taller bon accounts, others are still making up their minds. phil laval has more for presidents to pop stars to princes. social media is the mouthpiece of choice. now the taliban once in to the group has changed a whole lot. 20 years ago they'd been the internet now. you can't get them off it. they have been embracing social media to an extraordinary degree in kabul, the digital revolution becoming clear. selfies with fighters. how about wearing smart watches as they try to project a more modern approach? or we may have the same rights that going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us in a country that has changed so much. what is the payoff strategy here? like, what is it the taliban is trying to achieve? how are they doing it? have they thought it out? you think it's very sophisticated,

they are trying to message internally and externally they have been apparently lying in wait, ready to do this? there have been accounts that were on sites where they are supposed to be banned, that have sprung up immediately. conundrum hair is pretty clear. allow the taliban on social media, but then give them a platform. give them the gentleman say, or remove them, but then you're effectively binding an entire government. this is a real headache for social media companies. the taliban is officially been banned from facebook for years designated a dangerous organisation, tick tock to it says it considers the group a quote, terrorist organization and youtube because it's on the us. sanctions list messaging apps like whatsapp signal and telegram a private and encrypted that makes them more complicated. switzer meanwhile, well the taliban spokesman a pay is to be on there. for now. he's got 300000 followers, although no verified. blue. take a speaking of twitter that brings us to this place,

the us capital. remember what happened? hey, back in january, the man, some accused of inciting, this was kicked off twitter and facebook leading to questions and conversations about freedom of speech. and now we find ourselves in the situation where the, how man is treating away. and yet a former us president is banned. that's going to be controversial, right? yes, it is controversial. i mean, it is such a difficult argument to make these social media networks have not really figured out what is one standard. the only commonality has been if you're inciting violence, then there is some ground to ban you from the site. only 11 percent of off janice done had internet access at last count. that is 11 percent more than 2001. but suggests that a lot of what the tell about putting on line is not the afghans. it's for an international audience. unfortunately, the power has been able to master the use of social media, not just in terms of projecting its messages as propaganda, but also it is,

it is use social media and if exploit and social media for purposes of recruitment as well. and so taliban 2 point oh grows. it's reach online and on the ground. some sites now offering pools for guns to lock their profiles instantly in case they put them at risk. the taliban site no need. they've changed almost. i hate to say it like a rebranding. many don't believe them. they will have to convince the tech companies as well as the rest of the world. the sophomore and it's now joined by guests in new york. jim anderson, ceo of social flow, a company specializing in distributing social media content in washington, d. c half. and i best distinguish professor at national defense university. hassan is also author of the taliban revival and the prophets, air, and back in new york in myers founder of ocean x, y zed,

a strategic advisory firm focused on cultural and social media. welcome to all of you. so jim anderson, if i could start with you just broadly speaking, then what is the taliban social media strategy isn't in as much as you have seen it and certainly seems to be to embrace social media. you mentioned your piece, the taliban spokesman had 300000 followers. that is about 2 weeks dated. i looked last week. you had 350000 followers on twitter. i just checked the morning this morning. he's up 242-9000 he's growing about 25 percent followers a week. so clearly he's active. i think by extension you can see the taliban is active and you know, this is not the same old taliban, at least in terms of their messaging strategy. i think what everybody's really concerned about is their behavior and their governance. they are certainly known as a brutal regime and they have a long history of brutality. so i think everybody wants to see more important than

social media. how do they actually govern and what's their behavior? and then social media and they're very sophisticated strategy is going to be the indicator of that. yeah, that is, that is one of the big questions isn't, is going forward. what they actually do in practice compared to, to what they're, what they're saying on line in mind. if i get your take on this, given that only a 3rd of afghans actually have social media accounts, who are they actually targeting? well, i think the taliban are mostly targeting international audiences. that's been their strategy. historically, they are looking to soften their image abroad. they've also used that strategy to quickly overcome the african governments kind of bureaucratic channel announcements . their communication strategy was very old and very slow. and from february onwards we really seen that they've been able to advance quickly and then announce their advancements rapidly using social media. that's been the really internal target, externally they just want people to think we're friendly. this is the new time

we're going to do all these things. i think the real question is, is that the standards should they be judged on whatever they're putting out in the social media sphere, which even in the u. s. doesn't always hold up 3 ality. and if the platforms continue to band them, they might get upset. they might ban everybody and what's gonna happen then is we have no way to hold them accountable. be a local sources on the ground. that's the real conundrum for the platforms right now. how can i best force you will take on this? is this, this rebranding is it's been called tyler bond 2.0. so on is this all just for an international audience? no, i think this was part and parcel of strategies from very early on. i'll give you 2 examples. one was called. busy shop nama the letters. so there are probably conditioning camping early on, but this is how they would reach out to people. and they also had these experts who later on became in a way,

social media activists. but from early on had experts who would reach out to different people in different ways other than the night later they had points and motivational songs. so early on it was a set of illusion. they would stop the trucks and buses, public transportation, and talking about late 990 s u. and after 2001, they were to allow those buses to pass by in the winter to areas if the songs of the boy 3 off a profile of on boy 3 is, is being listened to in these buses or trucks or the transportation. so they always knew how to reach out to people to be electronic media and they are converting this expertise so to say are interest in electronic media and the chronic real reaching out into activism in social media. so this has been a part and parcel of this strategy. g madison. the point was made there in phil of

els, report about the fact that on twitter you have a former president who is a former us president who is banned from twitter and you have the taliban. and you know, there's lots of opinions of what the taliban are right now and they are right now largely allowed to operate on, on twitter. what do you make that? yeah, i think it's gotta be a very uncomfortable situation for twitter. i mean exactly what you say, the former us president, and actually, while he was the sitting us presidents, what twitter said though is you know, he was banned for president donald trump was banned because of his behavior. not because of who he was. and i think the same thing would extend to the taliban as well as you know, if they violate our terms of service that they advocate violence. if they start behaving in a way that violates our standards or promotes that violence, then the band will hit them as well. and again, that, you know, i think that's what everybody is on pins and needles. trying to understand is the behavior going to match what they say?

and if it doesn't, then i think you're going to see the pressure ratchet up, you know, even more considerably. it's like, ok, they're saying all the right things. but we have evidence that their behavior is not matching that. now plat ones, what are you going to do? and i will say i, one thing i find encouraging is the fact that you don't have one set of standards. facebook has chosen to ban anyone and anything associated with the taliban. twitter has not. in some ways, i think that's actually a courage. and number one shows that the tech companies are not all behaving unlocks that they're, they're wrestling with these very hard issues and reaching different conclusions and to it also gives us the ability to have a bit more experimentation. let's see how facebook approach works. let's see how the twitter approach, which is very different works and let's try to understand here in the coming weeks and months, which one seems to end up with a better result. interesting that these the say that the fact that there isn't a uniform policy is, is, is a good thing because i was, that's my next question. i'll put that to you. e. and these are all you know, to put a facebook, youtube, these are all private platforms. each with their own policies as, as, as jim said,

there, but does that complicate things going forward in the fact that there's not a uniform policy med, does there need to be there's not a uniform policy in the u. s. i don't see why there would be one abroad. well, you know, us is much more trend lively territory for all of them. it's something that we don't feel out of here. i will say that even though their policies can sometimes inconsistent, they changed their minds. a lot, all the platforms do this. their motivations remain largely the same across all of these incidents we've seen over time, i think for twitter, they've consistently been concerned mostly with ideology. they haven't really looked at profits as their main driver. they've always considered themselves to be the kind of global forum where anyone in less they violate their policies directly and very seriously can speak their mind and have a public record of what that being said. facebook always concerned with p. r and prophets optics. how do they look, are they going to get regulated?

how much money are they still able to make this has been pretty consistent and i think their actions in afghanistan fall, that path. you will get tick tock. they're concerned about nobody slowing down their growth. so as they're trying to ramp up advertisers on their platform, they're trying to get more attention is legitimate money maker. they're avoiding any scenario that could put them on the blacklist for advertisers, governments, regulators, anything. so even though the policies are inconsistent, the motivations i think remain the same. i agree with jim that it's good to have differentiated strategies here. so we can see what happens if everybody just decided to ban them all at once. we wouldn't really get to see what would play out . maybe they message will match their actions. who knows? how can i but now that they, the part of the taliban are actually in power. is there a risk that the the try to shut them down on? what any of these platforms, you risk, you know, shutting down the, the running of the government and then that, that affects atkins. that is,

so this will be a new challenge, new issue. but we know that there are many countries in the world which are autocratic in their solutions committed by many countries. and they have many of the institutions which have their presence, all the websites or we are also on social media. so there has to be one standard globally, and i think she was also more freedom of speech at one devin and at every level it is about find some, there were many dentist musicians which were using bip sites. many of those were shut down. other said, they have to be kept there because at times that is the way to to see what they are doing and work they are up to and how they're networking. so. so all those issues that it speaks, i think so far on the bottom, are trying to project on, but they are more responsible that they have changed. i'm not saying let's speak that exactly as dense,

but let's see how it goes. if they really show more maturity and if they show that they are not inciting violence and warranty, if united nations accept them, then they'll be all of this kind of a challenge that we come up. but if we will see that the hardliners will be, she missed among these groups. the other ones were calling the shots and bid websites have been used in a negative fashion consistently. then there's a strong case for instance, of $2500.00 bond. we're managing a website mater, rich headed, squandered on teams in english do by store barry. and so that reps, i've gone to for quite the right in certain places i remember you would like to go on the website. it can be blocked. but in other places it was globally, it was available and there was a controversy those issues as well so. so all of the factors have to be kept mine.

my u h. madison is there if we, if we look at how this might play out going forward, is this going to be a sort of cat and mouse game here between, between the, the, the social media platforms and, and the taller bond to, to see what, what they can get get away with will exploit the loopholes, the crop up every time. i think that definitely be an element of that, right? i mean, and, you know, you see the taliban spokesman and he's the one that everybody sort of focuses on because he's got the largest audience in the spokesman. you some of his statements . you can raise an eyebrow about, you know, when they start talking about israel or those kinds of things. i think we know what alabama is going to say about israel. do they walk up to the line? how aggressively do they message those kinds of things? there will be plenty of cat and mouth, but i can't help but wondering, you know, are we thinking about this only from one side of it? we keep asking you, what is twitter going to do about the taliban? i think is a very fair question asked, what's the taliban going to do about twitter? you know, we said that only a 3rd of afghanistan has social media,

and i believe that's, that's probably true. that doesn't mean over the next 5 years. only a 3rd of the of afghanistan will have social media, especially when you consider that nearly half the country is under age 15. and so i think the taliban in some ways is being very pragmatic here. and thing, when we can't put that genie back in the bottle, we can't just bam, social media and expect to be able to govern in 2022 the way we might have 20 years ago. and so i think this is going to be very much i like your break cat and mouse game, but in both directions because that the taliban is going to have to adapt to twitter just like twitter is going to have to after the taliban in mars will see, will take on that. i agree with jim i know i would say i think there's plenty of opportunity for the taliban if they want to to get very aggressive. we have to remember this isn't just about the platforms. a lot of the focus on twitter, facebook, etc, but really it's also the infrastructure players that have been weighing in as well as happened in the us. that's happening abroad. a w s. cloud prior infrastructure

provider saying, we're not going to host this content and forcing people to seek those services elsewhere. most of the internet is now run on a w. s. google cloud. microsoft is, are, all those services need to be made. there needs to be decisions made about the services from those companies about whether they want to host the websites host the content of these groups. i think by and large gym is right. the, the population is young. there's a lot of usage of, of social media. the taliban have been using youtube particularly effectively to get younger people out on the street saying look how wonderful everything is under the new taliban regime. they've been doing interviews, they've been using influences very definitely. so i think it is, it is a question of is that freedom of usage going to continue? it's a balance if they feel like they're being not allowed to use social media and the way they should, maybe they'll begin to restrict it for their citizens. hasn't been a in mise,

makes a point there about targeting the youth in afghanistan. but this works both ways doesn't, as we saw with the, with the, the so called arab spring in 2011 and a little in afghanistan over the last 20 years. you have a whole generation there that has grown up without, tyler bon rule may not willing be willing to accept it now, but like we talked about, they also know how to use social media to their advantage. absolutely. these are all very valid funds that were made. jenny also is that at this moment, the account of theater presented, or balaban, is the only major source of information for us yesterday. for example, recently, all of our leadership use the to, to messaging to make a case that all the women hosts worker should return to their work. of course, the only focus 1st on the women's health work is because. busy they, they have crisis, also recently the terrorist attack that happened,

people who were in the hospital had to be taken care of. and most of the physicians doctors, either at home or be in the process of leaving the country. so i live on need it. but how can i get the message out to, to was they only channels. so for some time, apparently this will be the only way and, and if thought of on gone to new to operate the way they are projecting in terms of minority rights in terms of women in terms of ensuring that human rights violations at the masculine not happening and they're using twitter for a positive messaging. and the taliban mean control remains in the hands of those who were the doha, a group with whom a certain medication or d, p d was made. and we see that other groups, like i said, so i f k the some extent and hold off on that be, are being pushed back by thought

a bomb. and so if all those things continue to happen then patricia gone from tyler bond. it actually turns out to be something which is making a good use of messaging in terms of using it as a tool. so or not, depends on the situation on the ground and how, how the various events, big ships, if they continue enough, be sure that there is a form of government, riches that taking care of people, which is engaging with the international community which is responding to the international needs, an international requirements in demand, and the future is being used for that kind of messaging or other social media as well, then they will make sense to, to continue to allow that. that's my point. yeah. command soon i saw you nodding in agreement to, to some of that. do you think that this, you know, being on social media, it could, could, in the long term be a force for good it for the taller bond in that is,

it provides an important line of communication. i think it very much could. i hope that's the case and i couldn't help but think it was not a grievance. exactly right. in some ways the taliban could become trapped by their own success right there. twitter spokesman has now up 242-9000 fans. i bet a week from now he'll be over half a 1000000 fans as you grow that audience and you use it effectively as part of your governance strategy. will you become dependent on that? what other channel is going to be as effective? just as has some said, you've got a specific need for female health care workers and you put a message out on twitter and you solve the problem. so the next time you have a problem, you're going to be just that much more likely to use the channel. and we've seen those when former president trump was banned. he lost a giant, we'd like to call the mag phone, right? he was able to communicate with his followers, he was able to get the media to cover what he said. and when that went away, it's significantly harmed his ability to get his message out. it was a big, big deal and that's why i think you see so many people expressing so much concern

about the power of the social platforms. but in this case, what you're talking about a social platform effectively having some degree of power. it's very soft power over the taliban government of afghanistan, and that i do think it could ultimately be a force for good. we certainly hope so. in myers, this is clearly clearly times have changed. since 20 years ago, when the taliban, when they were empowered, they were banning anyone from filming any sort of you know, bad. the internet was bad. that is clearly not something anybody would be able to do. now. sony, not in afghanistan. they don't have the that they wouldn't, they would struggle to block messages from, from outside, wouldn't they? so with that in mind what, how, what would be the strategy going forward just to continue to, to, to flood the, the air space go going forward with, with, with their own social media messages? well, i think to respond to jim and his son i'm, i'm of course optimistic as well. i hope this is

a change in their behavior and their governance and everything for the better. i also am hesitant to allow that to be the only one through which we see the activities of this regime. if everybody embraces the use of social media and they're sort of judged by that metric. is that really the best way to see what's happening on the ground, especially if they consolidate power around their accounts and limit power of individual users or people that might be capturing criticism or sort of hateful incidents that have been inside. so i think the question for me is, if that becomes the message, are we all kind of may be a little hesitant or a little too eager to embrace that kind of messaging and use social media. and what they're saying is sort of a fairy tale. and we want to see you for the african people and for the country. if you look at other regimes, if you look at other authoritarian governments around the world, if we were to just judge what they're doing based on what they say on twitter,

i think it's very dangerous, that's rarely accurate of what's going on. it's certainly not accurate of what's happening in the us. if you were to just look at our social media channels, what's trending on facebook. you know, a lot of it, it's been proven to be untrue and it's constantly taken down. so it's a slippery slope to just what you, that blends. i wish we had another way. we'll have to see if they begin to allow for journalist operating in the country to, to a large extent. so we can get some media coverage to back up the claims of peace and love and a new chapter for the for the taliban. alright, we're going to have to leave it there. thanks very much. all of you. good discussion. jim anderson has an i bass and ian moss. thanks very much of being on inside story and thank you. as always for watching, remember you can see this program again any time just go to our website edges here dot com. and for further discussion, you can go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash a j inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter handle. there is as a j inside story for me hasn't speaker and the whole team here,

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a tortured victim of the brutal argent time the delivery gene confronted his interrogator. torture? no, no, no, no. i wasn't trying to. i was inter getting has justice now been for the atrocious crimes committed decades earlier. either you were telling like an investigation into the dark history of argentina, or why didn't they tell me in the end, 3 wind interrogating, a torture on al jazeera, a story of life, deception life and death, an israeli spelling operating on the deep cover in syria. knowing that discovery would mean that and alex is there a well health gripping story by l. e colleague, operated on the cover in syria, in the 960 notation career that ended in public execution. eli cohen must have agents 18 on al jazeera, unprompted,

and uninterrupted discussions from our london broadcast center. on our 0 me this is al jazeera. ah, hello there. i'm to start the attain. this is a news line from our headquarters here in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. they lost a planner and they lost the facilitator and they've got 11 of the u. s. says it's intelligence that drone to talk talk to 2 leading members of the ice. okay. group.