The damage is only stopped when the vast amount of content that makes it AI-powered moderation efforts like object detection and scene recognition is flagged by users and eventually reviewed by an actual person, often long after it's been widely viewed. It transpired in May that French and German YouTubers, bloggers, and influencers were offered cash by a supposedly UK-based PR agency with Russian connections to falsely tell their followers the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has a high death rate. While it's difficult to put much faith in the Taliban's claims that they'll treat women and children much better than their barbaric history suggests, it's always important for facts and genuine material to be separated from known fiction and misrepresented content no matter the issue or personal views. An image of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez standing in front of a helicopter taking off in Afghanistan alongside the news caption "Violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power" was posted to various social networks over the weekend. Social media platforms can't become thought police, but where algorithms have detected manipulated content – and/or there is clear evidence of even real material being used for misleading purposes – it should be indisputable that action needs to be taken to support fair discussion and debate around genuine information.

As the Afghanistan crisis continues to unfold, it's clear that social media algorithms are unable to counter enough misleading and/or fake content. While it's unreasonable to expect that no disingenuous content will slip through the net, the sheer amount that continues to plague social networks shows that platform-holders still have little grip on the issue. When content is removed, it should either be prevented from being reuploaded or at least flagged as potentially misleading when displayed to other users. Too often, another account – whether real or fake – simply reposts the removed content so that it can continue spreading without limitation. The damage is only stopped when the vast amount of content that makes it AI-powered moderation efforts like object detection and scene recognition is flagged by users and eventually reviewed by an actual person, often long after it's been widely viewed.