Taliban Encouraging Influencers to Reshape Afghanistan’s Image

On 11 March 2025, Straight Arrow News report­ed that the Tal­iban were grant­i­ng broad­cast­ing licens­es to social media influ­encers while sup­press­ing crit­i­cal con­tent online. The arti­cle begins:

A grow­ing num­ber of YouTu­bers are trav­el­ing to Afghanistan to doc­u­ment their expe­ri­ences under Tal­iban rule. Their videos, which show­case dai­ly life, local cul­ture and inter­ac­tions with Tal­iban offi­cials, are rack­ing up hun­dreds of thou­sands of views. The Tal­iban is now issu­ing broad­cast­ing licens­es to social media influ­encers, accord­ing to The Wash­ing­ton Post. These licens­es put con­tent cre­ators on the same lev­el as TV net­works and radio sta­tions. How­ev­er, the licens­es can be revoked if influ­encers vio­late Tal­iban rules. At the same time, videos crit­i­cal of the Tal­iban are report­ed­ly being removed from YouTube. Ten con­tent cre­ators told The Post that YouTube had tak­en down their videos crit­i­ciz­ing the Tal­iban. Accord­ing to Busi­ness Insid­er, the Tal­iban is active­ly pro­mot­ing tourism through state-run media outlets.

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Key Points:

• The Tal­iban are issu­ing broad­cast­ing licens­es to influ­encers, ele­vat­ing them to the lev­el of tra­di­tion­al media networks.
• YouTube has report­ed­ly removed crit­i­cal con­tent about the Tal­iban, rais­ing con­cerns over media sup­pres­sion and censorship.
• Con­tent cre­ators are pro­mot­ing Afghanistan’s cul­ture and tourism while acknowl­edg­ing the country’s strict social restrictions.
• The Taliban’s media strat­e­gy aims to reshape Afghanistan’s glob­al image despite ongo­ing human rights violations.