The Taliban is trained for fighting in the social media battleground

Afghanistan Kabul Mood Digital weapon: Taliban fighters in Kabul | AP

Look who changed while you were not watching!

For the past few years, most people had accepted that the Taliban in Afghanistan was a reality that could not be ignored. The Taliban, however, is not just real, it is virtual, too. Its online presence is slick, suave and cut with a precision to suit its target audience.

While the world was wondering just how a medieval-minded set of gun-toting men would try to take over the country from the US and its allies, the Taliban was changing, adapting to the new tools of the age. Today, the Taliban leadership communicates all its official announcements and ideas through Twitter. While the main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweets mainly in Pashto, the other spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, communicates in English. Mujahid has 3.88 lakh followers and Shaheen 4.72 lakh, including diplomats, analysts, strategists and ordinary people. If social media is the new battleground, the Taliban is armed and trained in this warfare, too.

Harsh Pant, of the Observer Research Foundation, notes that the genesis of the Taliban’s makeover began in 2011, when it was first invited to London for talks. Over the next few years, as its representatives moved from five-star hotels across various countries and spoke across the table with top-notch diplomats, the leaders quickly picked up on tricks needed to stay relevant. By around 2017, they had learnt the ropes. “Outfits learn from each other,” says Pant. “ISIS is a very social media-savvy group. Some of their videos were made very professionally, which is how they attracted youngsters from even the west into their fold.”

This year has seen the Taliban use social and mainstream media to effectively put across its messages and shatter what it considers western propaganda or misinformation. Mujahid recently tweeted a video of women demonstrating in Mazar-e-Sharif, asserting their right to wear a hijab. It was to counter charges that the medieval Taliban would force its women behind the veil.

Shaheen also tweeted that its leader Mullah Baradar did not have any social media presence; any address created in this name was fake. It is obvious that the group has a trained social media team monitoring the virtual world, and is quick with rebuttals.

screenshots of tweets by Taliban spokespersons screenshots of tweets by Taliban spokespersons

Twitter recently said that, as long as the Taliban did not use the site for “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam”, it would be allowed to keep tweeting. On other platforms like Facebook and YouTube, where the Taliban is blocked, there are several proxy accounts that effectively communicate the group’s messaging, say observers.

The new-look Taliban has made it easy for one-time adversaries to engage with it, as well as supporters to stand by it. If the Taliban needs China, says Pant, then it has to turn a blind eye to the developments in Xinjiang (Uighur Muslim crisis). Unlike the last time, the Islamic world has not rushed to recognise the new regime without assessing what it will be like.

The past two decades was a learning phase for the Taliban; its new leadership now knows the importance of optics in the world of diplomacy, says Vishal Chandra, research fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. “They know what to say and to whom,” he says. Clearly, the messaging it put forth—like calling women health care workers to report to work, or the back to school video showing young girls—is aimed at the global audience, as well as the section of Afghans it needs to win over.

For reaching out with a peace offering to India, it cleverly selected Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, head of the outfit’s political office in Doha. Stanekzai is among the top leaders of the Taliban; he was so even in the old regime. However, there was a well-timed reminder of him being an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy, before he made the open outreach to India through a video message. Whichever side released this nugget, social media surely amplified it. Stanekzai, therefore, became the most acceptable face for India to engage with, which India’s ambassador to Doha, Deepak Mittal, finally did on September 1.

It is not only what the Taliban tweets that creates a buzz, but also what the group chooses not to. Shaheen, whose tweets are more about the outfit’s foreign office meetings, did not tweet about Mittal’s meeting. The omission has analysts breaking their heads over every facet of the India-Taliban tango.

The Taliban, now set to rule, knows it has to shed its barbaric image of the past, and fast. Despite the stop on the Afghan exodus now, the country has suffered much brain drain. If it has to stem the bleed, it needs to sell the promise of Afghanistan to Afghans as much as it has to the world. Banning the internet, as it did 20 years ago, is counter-productive, and if you cannot beat them, join them is the credo.

Is this the real face of the Taliban? Or is it just a mask? “Deep down, the Taliban hasn’t changed,” says Pant, predicting that, soon, there will be a tussle between the various factions within the Taliban—the conservatives, moderates and liberals. Chandra adds that while the political and diplomatic wing of the Taliban is on showcase now, the military wing is another entity altogether.

While in all likelihood the new regime will not be as bad as the first Taliban rule, it is not likely to be in accordance with the rosy picture the group’s public relation machinery is churning out either. Chandra notes that while the attention is in Kabul, developments in the provinces do not augur too well. Summary executions have begun. Many insurgents from various outfits are returning to villages. Will the new leadership be able to control these men, who largely supported the Taliban because it endorsed their own mindsets?

Mujahid recently tweeted to Taliban cadres to not fire celebratory shots in the air, as this scared the public. The audience was clearly the outside world, not the foot soldiers. For them, the orders must have been direct.

The Taliban is smart enough to know that managing its own men is not going to be as easy as managing social media narratives. The months to come, therefore, are going to be testing times for all. 

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