August 18, 2021: -Facebook has confirmed that it will continue to ban the Taliban and any content that promotes it from the central Facebook platform, Instagram and WhatsApp.

On Tuesday, the social media giant told CNBC that it considers the Afghan group, using social media platforms to project its messages for years, a terrorist organization.

Facebook said it has a dedicated team of content moderators monitoring and removing posts, images, videos, and other content related to the Taliban. It’s unclear how many people are on the team.

Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Islamic militant group over the weekend, as it seized the capital of Kabul and the Presidential Palace. After President Joe Biden’s April decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban made stunning battlefield advances, and nearly the whole nation is now under the insurgents’ control.

A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC: “The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law, and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies.”

The Taliban has been banned from Facebook for several years, a spokesperson said.

Facebook said this means it will remove the accounts that are maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and those that praise, support, and represent them.

“We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform,” the Facebook spokesperson said.

Facebook said it is unable to decide whether it should recognize national governments. Instead, it follows the “authority of the international community.”