Here comes the Taliban's alt-reality and social media propaganda war

We all knew this was happening. But here's some evidence. The Washington Post writes:

For a group that espouses ancient moral codes, the Afghan Taliban has used strikingly sophisticated social media tactics to build political momentum and, now that they’re in power, to make a public case that they’re ready to lead a modern nation state after nearly 20 years of war.

In accounts swelling across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — and in group chats on apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram — the messaging from Taliban supporters typically challenges the West’s dominant image of the group as intolerant, vicious and bent on revenge, while staying within the evolving boundaries of taste and content that tech companies use to police user behavior.

The tactics overall show such a high degree of skill that analysts believe at least one public relations firm is advising the Taliban on how to push key themes, amplify messages across platforms and create potentially viral images and video snippets — much like corporate and political campaigns do across the world.

One image from a video circulated online in Afghanistan shows Taliban fighters dressed in camouflage and brandishing machines guns while posing unmolested in an eastern province, not far from Kabul, under a gorgeous pink and blue sky. The text below, in Pashto and English, reads, “IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF FREEDOM.”

Wide distribution of such propaganda imagery would have been almost impossible for an insurgent movement there a generation ago, before the arrival of smartphones, Internet connections and free social media services brought unprecedented online reach to Afghanistan. The nation lags the world in Internet connectivity but it has grown sharply over the past decade amid a gush of international investment.  

Recent months have seen an uptick in online messages offering a gentler, more reassuring face of the Taliban, whose brutality during its previous reign over the nation was notorious, featuring mass executions, repressive moral codes and the exclusion of women from schools and workplaces.

It's not just the Taliban doing this. Every hate-driven and extremist group on the planet with half an ounce of brains has figured out by now that social media is it's most potent soft power weapon. Most or nearly all extremist groups are autocratic or authoritarian. Social media is unparalleled for a small group or presence to (i) deceive by creating alt-realities based on lies, deceit, emotional manipulation and motivated reasoning, (ii) build public support, (iii) find recruits, and (iv) raise money. 

Social media propaganda power works even better if the authoritarians hires an "amoral" public relations firm to create the lies and deceit and show the rot online in effective ways. There's no apparent shortage of PR firms willing to take any tyrant's money. After all, public relations companies, like all other businesses, are amoral and therefore free to advance the agenda and lies of anyone who can afford to hire their services and expertise. All businesses are free to ignore truth and morality to the limits of the law, or sometimes (often?) beyond that. 

For context: The Taliban took over Afghanistan by first offering villages two choices. Surrender and submit, or face death. The central government was powerless to stop that. After local villages capitulated, the Taliban went to towns and made the same offer. The central government was powerless to stop that. Then the Taliban went to cities and make the same offer and the central government was powerless to stop that too. The Taliban hunted down and murdered village, town and city leaders and prominent elders who resisted. Organized local resistance was impossible.

Questions: 

1. Is the Taliban gentler, or is that just a routine propaganda lie to make those dark ages thugs, sadists and theocrats look less vicious? 

2. Is social media a net benefit or net detriment to (1) democracy or non-tyrant governments, and (2) authoritarian or tyrant governments? 

3. Is business amoral, or because it is a human activity, inherently moralistic regardless of what economic ideologies have to say about morality or truth?