From Reuters:
“As Kabul turmoil mounts,
Taliban's PR offensive falters”
In the last few days, TV crews
from Afghanistan's Al-Emarah Studio, which produces pro-Taliban multimedia
content, have been out on the streets of Kabul speaking to residents with
reassuring messages about life returning to normal. "How confident are
you?" asked an interviewer with a Al-Emarah microphone in the city centre.
"100%," came the reply. "Security is good, there are no thieves,
we are very happy." The message is in sharp contrast to the chaos in parts
of Kabul since the Islamist militants swept in last Sunday after a lightning
conquest of Afghanistan. Thousands of people have swarmed around the airport,
desperate to escape amid fears of reprisals by the insurgents and harsh Islamic
law now that they are back in power. It has presented one of the toughest tests
yet for the movement's communications strategy, which has grown into a
sophisticated operation in recent years and yet is struggling to calm
widespread panic. The Al-Emarah interviews were a tiny step towards trying to
win back control of the message. For the moment, Al-Emarah websites in five
different languages have been difficult to access or apparently offline from
Friday, for reasons which remain unclear. The clips could be seen on social
media accounts, however. On Saturday, several Taliban spokesmen took to
television studios to reassure residents that the streets were safe. On the
same day, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader in
Afghanistan, arrived in Kabul to set up a police force.
'IT'S ALL LIES' Getting
their message across has proved harder since the Taliban conquered Afghanistan
than it was when they were fighting an insurgency against foreign and
U.S.-backed local armed forces. Over the years, it has often been a step
ahead of the government, getting its message out with a mix of multi-lingual
social media accounts, videos, photos and responsive, well-prepared spokesmen
equipped with ready answers to reporters' questions. While Facebook and
YouTube have banned the group, it has an active presence on Twitter and dozens
of social media accounts either directly linked to the movement or which stick
close to its message have sprung up. Many Afghans have treated those
messages with disdain. The group has been blamed for thousands of civilian
deaths in gun attacks and suicide bombings over the last 20 years, deaths it
said were justified in its war against invaders. And with growing
turmoil in Kabul and some other cities, the movement can no longer fall back on
accusations of abuse and wrongdoing by the Kabul government and its
international allies. The Taliban have tried to reassure both Afghans
and the international community that they will respect people's rights and
their forces will not exact revenge on members of the government and security
forces. The news conference held by the Taliban's main spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday put a public face on the movement's
communications operation for the first time. But social media feeds of
beatings or shaky video of people being dragged from cars and houses have
challenged the Taliban's narrative, sowing fear among a population still in
shock from the sudden collapse of the government. Many of the accounts
of abuse cannot be verified, but Taliban officials acknowledge the widespread
fears. A senior official told Reuters he had heard of some abuses
against civilians, but promised that any problems caused by people in the
movement would be investigated. In a tweet on Saturday, Mujahid said the
Taliban were setting up a three-member commission to handle problems
encountered by the media. With smartphones as common in Kabul as
anywhere else in the world and a youthful population that has grown up with the
internet, the Taliban's communications strategy will likely keep evolving. But
unless they can restore order to the streets and get people back to work,
messaging alone is unlikely to be enough. "I don't believe what they say
at all, it's all lies. Nobody trusts what they say," said one Kabul
resident, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.
^ The Afghani people are not
stupid. They know what the Taliban say and what they do are very different
(kind of like what Biden says is going on versus the reality of what is going on.)
The Taliban are trying to look good for the foreign cameras, but the decades of
illiterate Taliban Fighters that only understand how to beat and kill and not
think is not going to change a thing. The people of Afghanistan are and have
every reason to be deathly afraid of the Taliban because their actions show
they have not changed for the better. ^
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