it's a chain for this. we said we net then 15 years from now to demonstrate today, own roles in the forest in bio diversity 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, though, is causing consternation, hunting lobby on one side. conservationists on the other. andrew simmons al jazeera in the copy of mountains of romania. ah, fellow, again, the headlines on al jazeera us president joe biden has warned that another attack on capital airport within the next 24 to 36 hours is highly likely bite in has also promised further strikes against ice ok in retaliation of thursdays. deadly bombing that killed at least 175 people. gabriel alessandra has more from washington dc.

what we're hearing is, is that from the white house and from the pentagon, is that they're keeping all options open on a potential. another strike against iso k in terms of the threat to the airport to the people either outside the airport or to us service members guarding inside the airport. where the evacuees to whitehouse is not saying exactly what the threats are. but they clearly are very clear and very credible threats. and joe biden says that he met with his top military commanders and intelligence officials that say it's very likely that attack could happen. come within the next 24 to 36 hours while the taliban says capital airport will be under its complete control very soon as a bolster security around the complex. the group is now escorting some off guns into the airport. the last british military flight has left capital carrying the u

. k is remaining diplomats and troops out of town is done. the final flight carrying after and civilians left earlier on saturday, 1000 to 5 guns, eligible for resettlement have been left behind. iraq is hosting a regional summit aimed at promoting peace on reconciliation in the middle east. also hoping for improve ties between saudi arabia and iran, or among the countries taking part for cost or say hurricane ida is gathering strength as it approaches new orleans. it's expected to make landfall on the u. s. gulf coast on sunday as a dangerous category for hurricane. louisiana has declared a state of emergency thousands of protesters in washington dc, demanding an end to what they call voter suppression. states like georgia and texas have an active laws that many see is restricted rights. demonstrators are also calling on elected officials for better access to the ballasts will have a check of the headlines on al jazeera at the top of the hour. thanks so much

in the band. the more great and the question is, social media faces over how to treat the carla bar. how is the group that's now in control of afghanistan promoting its message online? how should tech john handle the content this is inside stored? ah, ah hello, welcome to the program. i'm hasn'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 owners now face the challenge in deciding how to deal with the group as it prepares to form afghan astounds new government. while some platforms have banned taller, bond accounts, others are still making up their minds. phil of l has more for presidents to pop stars, to princes. social media is the mouthpiece of choice. now the taliban once into the group has changed a whole lot. 20 years ago they've 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 taliban wearing smart watches as they try to project a more modern approach. or we may have the same rights. they're 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. the conundrum here is pretty clear. allow the taliban on social media, but then give them a platform, give them legitimacy, or remove them. but then you're effectively banning an entire government. this is a real headache. the social media companies. the tyler bonds 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 u. s. 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 you only commonality has been if you're inciting violence, then there's some grounds to ban you from a 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 and propaganda, but also it is, it is use social media, it is exploited. 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 tools for afghans 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 in this now i'm joined by guess in new york, jim anderson, the ceo of social flow, a company specializing in distributing social media content. in washington, d. c has an eye best distinguished professor at national defense university. hassan

is also author of the taliban revival and the profits 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 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, that is about 2 weeks dated. i look last week you had 350000 followers on twitter. i just checked the morning this morning. he's up 242-9000. you know, 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 is 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, 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 storage. 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've 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 a 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 into 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. half an hour, but we'll see we'll 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 busy shop nama the night letters. so this would be

our republican nation in camping early on, that 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 the from early on had experts who would reach out to different people in different ways other than the night let to be had points and motivational songs. so early on it was a set of lucian. they would stop the trucks and buses, public transportation, and talking about late $990.00, even after 2001. they were to allow those buses to pass by in the, by the band dominated areas. if the songs of the boy 3 off approved i live 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, natalia, real,

reaching out into activism in social media. so this has been a part and parcel of this strategy. jim anderson, the point was made there in philip 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 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 promote 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 price 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 platforms, what are you going to do? and i will say, 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. what's the, 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 actually my next question. i'll put that to you in. these are all you know, to put a facebook you to these 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 change their minds. a lot, all the platforms you this, their motivations remain largely the same across all of these incidents. we've seen over time, i think for twitter and 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, unless 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 follow that path. you can take talk, 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 best now that they, the pat, the taliban, are actually in power is they were risk that 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 true. this will be a new challenge, a new issue of but we know that there are many conclusions. the war which are autocratic in their solutions mentioned by many countries. and they have many of the institutions which have their presence or the rep sites or we are also on social media. so there has to be one standard globally. and i think she was also about freedom of speech at one devin and at every level it is about find some, there were many dentist musicians which were using websites. 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 what they're 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 it is for. let's see how it goes. if they will show more maturity, and if they show that they are not inciting violence and more, if united nations accept them, then they'll be less 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 that are being used in a, in a negative fashion consistently. then there's a strong case, for instance, of $2500.00 bond. we're managing a website mater, which headed sponder as on tim, send in your issue, but still berry. and so that reps that company for quite the right in certain places. i remember you would like to go on the website. it could be blocked,

but in other places it was globally, it was available. and they were the controversy and those issues as well. so. so all of the factors have to be kept mine in 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 just to see what, what they can get get away with 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 statement. you can raise an eyebrow about, you know, when they start talking about israel or those kinds of things. i think we know what elevator 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. ask, 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. 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 phrase, cat and mouse game, but in both directions. because that the taliban is going to have to adapt to twitter just like twitter. it's going to after, after the element in mars was you 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 to tap into broad a w. s. cloud for infrastructure providers 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 of 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 website, 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 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 that 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. has an i battery in my eyes, makes the point there about targeting the youth in afghanistan. but this works both ways doesn't as we saw with the, with 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 gone up without taliban rule, amino willing, be willing to accept it now. but like the taliban, they also know how to use social media to their advantage. absolutely. these are all very valid. finds that for me. the jenny also is that at this moment, the account of theater presented 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 health worker should return to their work. of course, the only focus 1st on the women's health work is because they, they health 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 thought it was needed, but how could they get the message out to to was they only channels? so for sometime, apparently this will be the only way and, and if thought about gone to new to operate the way they're rejecting in terms of minority rights in terms of women in terms of ensuring that human rights violations at the mask is 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. d was made. and we see that other groups like day should i sit, so i f, k, the slum extension on that be are being pushed back by thought a bomb. and so if all those things continue to happen then patricia calling 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 speak shapes 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 and demands and the printer is being used for that kind of messaging or other social media as well. then that will make sense to, to continue to load that. that's my point. yeah. command it's gonna show you

nodding in agreement to, to some of that. do you think that this is, you know, being on social media it could, could, in the long term be a force for good is for the tele bond. and 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 as i was not going to 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 pants as you grow that audience. and you use it effectively as part of your governance strategy where 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 donald trump with band he lost a giant, we'd like to call the maga 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, you know, 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, bank the internet was ban. that is clearly not something anybody would be able to do now. so any 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 on their accounts and limit the power of individual users or people that might be capturing criticism or sort of hateful incidence that is halimon 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 and sort of a fairytale and we want to see 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 a 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. all right, 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 so much for 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, edge 0 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 a j inside story for me, hasn't speaker, and the whole team here us now the ah, ah ah, i think of some of the biggest companies in the world today. all of the big kick with algorithms that they're called, the move that we use, the more data we pritchard wearing them, it's a great race. the data and big companies around the empires are rising on a wealth of information and we need the commodity. in the 2nd 5 part series 90 re

examined whether corporations are colonizing internet. like to meet the popularity and power of tech on a jazzy into the latest news. as it breaks, the storms spared the worst for a long island, which fear to direct it. but it's still whipped up high winds and high ways with detailed coverage of government and still rescue to send all the children back. not only put them from around the world, hundreds of children have been born to women abused by fighters. in addition to social pressure, you can only carry their religion if both parents are v in countries like mine, people have been killed to be when the united states have privatized the ultimate public war. this was a deal with saudi arabia. things were done differently. saudis and other areas when they came to britain to be all to help the moms deals along your rumsfeld was

meeting saddam. is it that interesting? there, i am. shadow on al jazeera, a diverse range of stories from across the globe, from the perspective of a network john and analogy era. ah, this is al jazeera, i'm darian obligated with a check on your world headlines. he was president joe biden has warned that another attack on cabal airport within the next 24 to 36 hours is highly unlikely. biden has also promised further attacks against ice ok in retaliation to thursdays bombing. gabriel alexander reports from washington, d. c. fridays. drones strike, they killed 2 ice, okay. members and wounded and.