Facebook and Instagram Wednesday briefly flagged posts by a North Carolina congressman containing a graphic showing a breakdown of the U.S. military equipment inventory that was lost to the Taliban in their takeover of Afghanistan, which they said contained “false information.”
The move to censor the Republican Rep. Richard Hudson’s post came amid reports that the Biden administration also was scrubbing online reports which detailed the equipment that the U.S. military provided to the Afghan security forces throughout the war, some of which has been seized by the Taliban.
Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, later removed their flag on the posts, but Greg Steele, a spokesman for the lawmaker, said their actions by the social media sites are concerning.
“Joe Biden promised the most transparent administration in history, but is reportedly trying to scrub information about his catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the equipment left behind,” Mr. Steele said. “My fear is Facebook was also trying to keep the truth away from people, but I am glad they have corrected the false labeling.”
The graphic Mr. Hudson posted was originally published by the Sunday Times and details the number and types of equipment seized by the Taliban.
Mr. Hudson accompanied the graphic with a brief comment which read:
“In addition to thousands of Americans and allies left behind in Afghanistan, President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal also left billions of dollars of military equipment — paid for by American taxpayers — in the hands of the brutal Taliban regime. Thanks to President Biden, the Taliban now has more Black Hawk helicopters than 85% of countries in the world. This is a disgrace.”
On Tuesday, The Washington Post fact-checked specific claims concerning the total dollar value of the equipment that was turned over. All told, the U.S. provided more than $80 billion in materiel and training to the Afghan war efforts, but only a relatively small fraction of that total constituted the weapons, helicopters vehicles and equipment abandoned by U.S. troops in last month’s hurried evacuation.
The Post did not, however, specifically dispute the inventory that was turned over, though pointed out that some of the equipment may be “obsolete or destroyed - or soon may not be usable.” Mr. Hudson’s original post did not include a dollar figure.
“While fact-checkers have disputed the exact dollar amount of equipment left in Afghanistan (estimated to be $24 billion of our total $82.9 billion investment in Afghanistan), there is no dispute of the inventory of vehicles, arms, and aircraft American taxpayers sent to Afghanistan over the last two decades,” Mr. Hudson said after Facebook flagged the post.
“These figures have been compiled by the U.S. Government Accounting Office and the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction. Censoring these facts is ridiculous!” he said.
Facebook did not provide Mr. Hudson’s office with an explanation as to why the post was originally flagged and why the flag was removed. The company did not respond to The Washington Times’ request for comment.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.