August 23, 2021

Facebook has added new features to protect its users in Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover.

Facebook stated that it has recently “removed the ability to view and search the ‘Friends’ list for Facebook accounts in Afghanistan,” a move that will help protect Afghans from being targeted.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, who announced the new development on Thursday, said: “We’ve launched a one-click tool for people in Afghanistan to quickly lock down their account. When their profile is locked, people who aren’t their friends can’t download or share their profile photo or see posts on their timeline…we’re rolling out pop-up alerts in Afghanistan with specific steps on how to protect your account and we are working closely with our counterparts in industry, civil society, and government to provide whatever support we can to help protect people.”

The new action by Facebook comes after the social media giant announced it would continue to ban Taliban content from its platform because it considers the group a terrorist organization.

LinkedIn has also taken steps by hiding the connections of everyone in the country.

For more information, read the original story on the BBC.