{"id":666410,"date":"2022-05-22T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-22T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=397518"},"modified":"2022-05-22T11:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T11:00:24","slug":"facebook-anti-terror-policy-lands-head-of-afghan-red-crescent-society-on-censorship-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/22\/facebook-anti-terror-policy-lands-head-of-afghan-red-crescent-society-on-censorship-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Anti-Terror Policy Lands Head of Afghan Red Crescent Society on Censorship List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid a historic<\/u> and ever-worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Facebook recently added the head of one of the country\u2019s most important domestic aid groups to its Dangerous Individuals terror blacklist<\/a>, The Intercept has learned.<\/p>\n

Internal company materials reviewed by The Intercept show that Matiul Haq Khalis \u2014 head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, or ARCS; son of a famed mujahedeen commander, Mohammad Yunus Khalis; and a former Taliban negotiator \u2014 was added to the company\u2019s stringent censorship list in late April, joining a group of thousands of people and organizations deemed too dangerous to freely discuss or use the platform, including alleged terrorists, hate groups, drug cartels, and mass murderers. But Facebook\u2019s designation now means that the list, ostensibly created and enforced to stop offline harm, could disrupt the work of a globally recognized organization working to ease the immiseration of tens of millions of civilians.<\/p>\n

After the collapse<\/a> of the U.S.-backed government and withdrawal<\/a> of American military forces, Khalis was named president of the organization, which helps provide health care, food, and other humanitarian aid to civilians there since its founding in 1934. In a country where half the population is going hungry<\/a> and American sanctions threaten<\/a> a total economic collapse<\/a>, the ARCS is a bulwark against even greater suffering. Following Khalis’s addition to the Dangerous Individuals list under its most restrictive \u201cTier 1\u201d category for terrorists\u00a0due to his Taliban affiliation, the over\u00a02 billion Facebook and Instagram users around the world are now barred from praising, supporting, or representing Khalis; this means even an anodyne photo of him at an official ARCS event, quotation of remarks, or positive mention of him in the context of the organization\u2019s aid work would risk deletion, as would any attempt on his part to use the company\u2019s platform to communicate, either in Afghanistan or abroad.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThe Afghan Red Crescent continues to provide lifesaving assistance across the country, to the most vulnerable people in the country, working in all provinces,\u201d said Anita Dullard, spokesperson with the International Committee of the Red Cross. \u201cThey\u2019re dealing with a range of things including severe drought, Covid, economic hardship, and working to support the healthcare system in Afghanistan. We work closely with Afghan Red Crescent to ensure that we can deliver humanitarian assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior official with a major international aid organization in Afghanistan, who spoke with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity due to avoid jeopardizing operations in the country, described ARCS as \u201cone of the major humanitarian actors delivering services to a growing number of people in need\u201d and \u201ca huge contributor to the collective humanitarian efforts\u201d pursued in conjunction with other NGOs. This aid official expressed surprise that Khalis would be singled out for censorship despite his Taliban affiliation, saying he had \u201cnever held a gun,\u201d and expressed concern over the potential to impede lifesaving humanitarian work. \u201cFor sure the ARCS is using Facebook as a tool of communication\u201d with the public, this source continued. \u201cIf [the blacklisting] has an effect it will be negative\u201d for Afghanistan, they added.
\n

\n\"Chinese\n

Secretary General of the Afghan Red Crescent Society Mawlawi Matiul Haq Khalis, right, attends a handover ceremony for donated supplies in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Dec. 21, 2021.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Saifurahman Safi\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>
\nKhalis has had an \u201cextremely varied career\u201d in Afghanistan, according to Graeme Smith, an Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group and former United Nations officer stationed in the country. Smith noted that Khalis was in recent history considered an ally of the U.S., having served with the anti-Soviet mujahedeen led by his father, who in 1987 was feted by President Ronald Reagan at a White House reception<\/a>. Following the American invasion in 2001, Khalis sided with the Taliban. \u201cIn other words he’s from a prominent family with pedigree rooted in tribal support from eastern Afghanistan and a history of fighting invaders,\u201d explained Smith. \u201cI have spent the better part of my career studying Afghan politics and I have never met any important politician who is not ‘dangerous’ in some way. Afghans have learned through bitter experience that Western politicians are also dangerous, at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Facebook\u2019s designation of Khalis, considered in a vacuum, is unsurprising. The company’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals roster generally mirrors the foreign policy stances of the United States, blacklisting federally sanctioned and terror-designated entities like the Taliban as a matter of course while granting great latitude to Western allies. In Afghanistan, Facebook\u2019s near-total mimicry of State Department decision-making has meant that the ruling government of a sovereign country, as repressive of its own people and despised as it may still be in the U.S., is unable to freely use the internet to communicate with its citizenry<\/a>. The U.S. government and Facebook share not only a common dilemma over how to treat the Taliban now that the group has won the war and assumed control of the country, but seem to be taking the same punitive approach to that matter. Just as the Biden administration continues to punish the Taliban at the expense of the people of Afghanistan by withholding billions of dollars in frozen cash<\/a>, Facebook now sanctions the head of one of Afghanistan\u2019s most important humanitarian organizations at a time when Afghans are selling their kidneys to avoid starvation<\/a>. \u201cIt goes without saying that the Red Crescent plays a crucial humanitarian role in Afghanistan’s ongoing armed conflicts,\u201d added Smith.<\/p>\n\n

John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told The Intercept that he doubted the blacklisting would have a significant impact on relief efforts inside the country, given the relatively small scope of the ARCS compared to larger international organizations. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to somehow significantly impact their operations or outreach,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more illustrative of Facebook having a policy that doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense.\u201d Sifton questioned the extent to which letting people speak freely of Khalis would endanger anyone or anything. \u201cHow is he \u2018dangerous\u2019? He\u2019s like 65 years old. He has no militia. His father was a mujahedeen commander, but what is the problem here?\u201d Sifton pointed to groups that are actively using the platform to incite violence. \u201cThere are hate guys in India that are spreading toxic anti-Muslim violence across Facebook, Hindu nationalist groups, hateful Buddhist groups in Burma, that\u2019s a real problem. Having Khalis online posting about how he cut the ribbon at a new hospital in Afghanistan, that\u2019s not part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook has at times defended the breadth of its blacklist by claiming, without evidence, that it\u2019s legally required to censor discussion of certain entities in order to comply with U.S. sanctions law, though neither the ARCS nor Khalis are currently named in the Treasury or State Department\u2019s counterterrorism sanctions lists. And although the Taliban has an inarguably ugly human rights record and a long history of civilian brutalization, so do many governments left untouched by the Dangerous Organizations policy. The Dangerous Organizations and Individuals list is often criticized for its lack of flexibility and country-specific nuance, and though the company has shown that it is at times willing to make drastic exceptions<\/a>, these exceptions<\/a> generally also jibe with American policy determinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Twitter is doing the exact opposite tells you everything you need to know.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

While Sifton is critical of Facebook\u2019s rigid censorship policies, he also assigns blame to \u201cscattershot\u201d and outdated federal anti-terror policies and dismissed the company\u2019s claims that it has any legal obligation to mimic them: \u201cThe fact that Twitter is doing the exact opposite tells you everything you need to know.\u201d Sifton said that by following the \u201cabsurdities\u201d of counterterrorism sanctions lists, Facebook is replicating the government\u2019s mistakes. While he emphasized that he was not defending the \u201cmisogynist, authoritarian, rights-abusing\u201d Taliban, he questioned the notion that the aging mujahedeen of the 1980s still represent a \u201cdanger\u201d to the global community. \u201cThe Taliban was dangerous because they hosted Al Qaeda between 1996 and 2001, and Al Qaeda used their territory to plan 9\/11 \u2026 and all the guys who did that are dead, and all the Arabs they hosted are either dead or very old or at Guant\u00e1namo.\u201d To the extent that the Taliban writ large represents a genuine danger to Afghan civilians<\/a>, it’s unclear how restricting global discussion of Khalis might help.<\/p>\n

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Khalis was added to the social network\u2019s blacklist alongside some two dozen other Taliban-affiliated individuals, including others in humanitarian or public health roles, like Afghanistan\u2019s minister of public health, deputy minister of disaster management, and deputy minister of refugees. But unlike these latter offices, the ARCS is nongovernmental, part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement of humanitarian relief organizations.<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provided a statement from ARCS Acting\u00a0Secretary General Mohammad Nabi Burhan, stating that the Taliban government has not affected the group\u2019s mission or ongoing work. “The Afghan Red Crescent Society delivers impartial, neutral and independent humanitarian services across all provinces in Afghanistan, in its role as auxiliary to public authorities in accordance with the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAfghan Red Crescent Society has been operating under a new leadership since October 2021. It is not unusual for changes in leadership of a Red Cross or Red Crescent National Society to follow a change in leadership at a national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Facebook Anti-Terror Policy Lands Head of Afghan Red Crescent Society on Censorship List<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matiul Haq Khalis, head of the aid group ARCS and a former Taliban negotiator, was added to Facebook\u2019s Dangerous Individuals blacklist.<\/p>\n

The post Facebook Anti-Terror Policy Lands Head of Afghan Red Crescent Society on Censorship List<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666411,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666410\/revisions\/666411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}