Google Shuts Down App Attracting Users to Terrorist Group Taliban's Cause

Google Play Store has removed an app that was created by extremist Islamic group the Taliban.

The Alemarah app contained stories and statements written in the Pashto language and showcased videos made by the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told Bloomberg that the app is part of the group's "advanced technological efforts to make more global audience" and to attract others to its cause.

In his interview with Bloomberg, Mujahed said that Google removed the app to resolve "technical issues." However, BBC News reported on Monday that Google took down the app because it violated a policy that forbids hate speech.

"We can confirm that our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users and developers," a Google spokesman said, as quoted by CNET. "That's why we remove apps from Google Play that violate those policies."

U.S.-based SITE Intel Group, which monitors the internet for jihadist content, discovered the Alemarah app on April 1, Bloomberg wrote. According to the group, Alemarah is being used by the Afghan Taliban to access its Pashto website.

The Taliban's Pashto website is now updated in five languages, which include English and Arabic, The Guardian reported. The Taliban also maintains a continuous presence on Twitter and Facebook to spread its message, despite the social networks' attempts to remove the groups' accounts upon discovery.

Taliban Competing with ISIL

The Taliban has an ongoing jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan for over 14 years since it was removed from the country in 2001, Bloomberg noted.

Experts think that the Taliban's app is part of the group's rivalry with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, popularly known as ISIS or ISIL. The latter has been using social media platforms to distribute their message and to attract people to their cause. ISIL has been active in some parts of eastern Afghanistan and even launched a radio station, The Guardian wrote.

"That the app was launched in Pashto indicates that the local Pashtun population is the main audience and it could thus be perceived as an attempt to bolster its support in eastern Afghanistan where IS -- especially in Nangarhar and Paktika -- is pushing for control," Tore Hamming, a militant Islamism researcher at the European University Institute, told The Guardian.

Social networks, app stores, and other websites are careful when it comes to taking down apps because of people's right to free speech. Plenty of websites, however, enact policies banning content deemed to be terrorist propaganda, CNET added.

Google started pre-moderating apps in March to "catch policy offenders earlier in the process," The Guardian reported. Before that rule, the company kept its app store open to users except when apps are considered dangerous or insecure.