In August 2021, the US military, which had been working hard to keep Afghanistan for a long time, began to withdraw. Eventually, on August 16, the Taliban finally declared victory, effectively collapsing the Afghan regime. In Afghanistan, fearful of Taliban rule, people trying to escape swarmed at the airport, causing confusion. In the midst of this, Clubhouse, a voice social media app, announced that it will delete user personal information in Afghanistan to protect the safety of users in Afghanistan.
According to local journalists, the clubhouse tweeted to Afghan users and took steps to delete personal information linked to their accounts to protect the privacy and safety of Afghan users.
What will be deleted is the Afghan user experience and photos linked to the account. This makes it impossible to find Afghan user accounts by searching for a person’s name or photo. Clubhouse said that the deletion of personal information does not affect the user floor, and users can cancel all changes if they wish.
As the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, they are reportedly removing photos from their social media accounts and smartphones that could indicate Afghanistan’s relationship with the West or existing governments, according to reports. The clubhouse’s decision this time can be seen as helping such Afghan users.
In addition, to protect the human rights and safety of users in Afghanistan, the Clubhouse only allows users in the region to register for pseudonym accounts. The clubhouse said it consulted with experts on freedom of expression and violent extremism in introducing this method.
In addition to Clubhouse, measures to protect Afghan users are also protecting Afghan users from the Taliban, such as Facebook hiding friends lists or releasing tools to quickly lock accounts. In addition, with respect to the Taliban attempting to transmit information through SNS, separate measures are being taken for each platform. Facebook has a dedicated operation team that manages Taliban-related content, and strictly monitors and deletes it. Related information can be found here.