海角大神

Taliban Android app latest example of group's growing tech savvy

The fundamentalist group released its own app on the Google Play marketplace, expanding its digital reach. The app was removed from the store this weekend.

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Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A 3D printed Android logo is seen in front of a displayed cyber code in this illustration. The Taliban this weekend released their own app on Android's Google Play store.

The Taliban released an application on Google Play, the Android app store, this weekend, adding another digital component to the jihadist group's ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan.聽

Although Google Play deleted the Pashto-language app within days, its creation suggests that the fundamentalist group, known for their propensity to attack civilians, may be trying to appeal to new recruits in Afghanistan.聽

"The app will help Taliban to further by their propaganda reports," Kabul-based security analyst Jawid Kohistani told Bloomberg.聽

SITE Intelligence Group reported Friday that , called Alemarah, on Google Play in an effort to broaden its influence worldwide and connect users to its multilingual website and official Taliban videos and statements.

Alemarah was developed as "part of our advanced technological efforts ," [sic] Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told Bloomberg. Mr. Mujahed said the app had been removed聽

Google does not comment on individual apps, but did explain that it takes down those that violate community regulations. Google Play policies prohibit apps that " or other dangerous activities," including terrorist attacks and bomb-making.聽

"Our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users and developers. That's why we remove apps from Google Play that violate those policies," Google said in a statement.

海角大神 reported that Google also plans to fight extremism-related searches on its platforms by providing advertising credits to anti-radicalization groups.

The push by the Taliban to become more recognized online could be inspired by a similar Internet-based approach that has helped the Islamic State (IS) gain prominence. The Taliban's website runs in several languages, including English and Arabic, and they now have Twitter and Facebook accounts that promote their activities in a similar manner to IS.

The Monitor reported in December that IS had developed its own Android app as well, although that software remained closed to public downloads. The app is available through Telegram, an encrypted chat program. 聽

Despite the parallels with IS social media methodology, the Taliban has openly renounced the militants' advances in Afghanistan, where it hopes to regain power unopposed. Mujahed told Bloomberg in February that IS was ""聽of the Middle East that "has no place in our community."

"That the app was launched in Pashto indicates that the local Pashtun population is the main audience and it could thus be perceived as where IS 鈥斅爀specially in Nangarhar and Paktika 鈥斅爄s pushing for control," Tore Hamming, who studies militant Islam at the European University Institute, told The Guardian. 聽

Following their fall from power in Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban have regrouped into organized insurgency, and still appear to be a growing power. Although an estimated 20,000 to 35,000 jihadists were killed over the last decade, as of 2014, as Voice of America reported,聽an all-time high for the group.

More than聽, with 62 percent of all casualties caused by "Anti-Government Elements," according to a United Nations report.聽

Despite repeated efforts to begin peace talks with Afghanistan鈥檚 government, a solid start to such a process has not yet materialized. The Taliban claimed responsibility for a religiously-motivated Easter day bombing聽in Pakistan that killed more than 70, mostly women and children,聽and most recently executed a Sunday night ambush that .

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