A big-scale Internet blackout swept throughout Afghanistan on September 29, simply weeks after the ruling Taliban authorities began severing fiber-optic cables in a number of provinces, resulting in localized outages.
Many worldwide and native information retailers reporting from Afghanistan have been affected by the large outage, together with RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi and Radio Mashaal.
“Afghanistan is now within the midst of a whole Internet blackout as Taliban authorities transfer to implement morality measures, with a number of networks disconnected via the morning,” Internet governance watchdog Netblocks mentioned.
The Taliban’s management has not publicly commented on the nationwide shutdown and it was not clear how lengthy it could final.
On September 26, nevertheless, Haji Zahid, a neighborhood Taliban spokesperson within the northern province of Balkh, mentioned in a put up on X that the ban had been ordered by their chief, Haibatullah Akhundzada, “to forestall immoral actions.”
The Taliban has used Islamic Shari’a regulation to justify its extremist insurance policies. But Islamic students say there aren’t any spiritual grounds for the group’s determination to close down the Internet.
The Internet blockage is a part of a wider crackdown on particular person freedoms and the free stream of data in Afghanistan.
Since seizing energy in 2021, the Taliban has severely restricted the rights of Afghans, particularly ladies, and violently cracked down on dissent.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal on September 24, US State Department’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Stickney mentioned the US administration was carefully monitoring the scenario.
“These studies are very worrying and we don’t see these restrictions as serving to the individuals of Afghanistan. On the opposite, these restrictions could have a detrimental affect on individuals’s lives and the economic system,” she mentioned.
The United States and most different Western nations have refused to acknowledge the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legit authorities because it retook management in 2021, following the hasty withdrawal of worldwide troops from the nation.
