The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Daily: Scott Anderson on How Social Media Platforms Should Handle Unrecognized Regimes
Dec 17, 2025
Scott Anderson, a Senior Editor at Lawfare and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, dives deep into the complex relationship between social media platforms and unrecognized regimes like the Taliban. He discusses how the Taliban's 2021 takeover challenged platforms' policies. Anderson contrasts the divergent strategies of Meta and Twitter, tackles the balance between sanctions and governance, and proposes a 'de facto authorities rule' to allow essential services while remaining compliant with laws. This framework aims to ensure civilians still receive crucial information.
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Sanctions Clash With Civilian Needs
- When sanctioned armed groups gain territorial control, sanctions designed to isolate them collide with civilian needs under their governance.
- Scott Anderson highlights that social media became essential public infrastructure in Afghanistan, complicating blanket sanctions-based bans.
Afghan Government Channels Became Contested
- The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had long used social media to deliver public services across difficult terrain.
- When the Taliban took over, those channels became contested property overnight, leaving platforms unsure whom to treat as the official actor.
Two Platform Compliance Models
- Platforms split into two models: sanctions-driven blocks (Meta, YouTube) and conduct-driven approaches (Twitter/X).
- The latter leaned on the Berman exception argument to allow accounts unless they directly incited violence.