Thread by @afghan_witness

#Afghanistan | 🧵

1/ On the evening of Feb 8, at least several hundred people gathered at #Kabul International Airport after rumours circulated of flights to Turkey being arranged for Afghans to support the earthquake relief effort, with all visa requirements being waived.

2/ On Feb 19, the Taliban’s GDI released a video showing the ‘confession’ of two #Afghan satirists, Imran Ahmadzai and Sadullah Didan, who were accused of spreading the rumours of the flights to #Turkey, as well as anti-regime propaganda.

3/ AW found three posts by Ahmadzai on Feb 8, when the rush to the airport was underway, and he pretended to be among the crowds. All the posts generated a reasonable level of engagement but not at a level likely to have been a major catalyst to the rumours of flights to #Turkey.

4/ Ahmadzai was not among the early promoters of the rumours – pro-Taliban Twitter accounts can be found posting the story seemingly as genuine almost 2 hrs before Ahmadzai’s first post.

5/ AW’s assessment of the profiles associated with the men found Facebook posts that included some criticism of the Taliban, but not beyond what is commonly found on non-Taliban social media profiles. For example, there is some criticism of the Taliban’s ban on girls’ #education.

6/ Importantly, the two satirists cannot be singled out for initiating or significantly popularising the rumours about the flights to Turkey – it appears the #Taliban have used the #Kabul airport incident as an excuse to go after popular social media activists.

7/ There are some unconfirmed reports on social media of the release of Sadullah Didan and Imran Ahmadzai on February 21. However, no confirmation or proof is available yet.

Read our full analysis here:⬇️
afghanwitness.org/reports/taliba…