‘Total internet blackout’ in Afghanistan sparks panic after Taliban vowed to stamp out immoral activities

CNN:

Afghanistan faced a sweeping internet blackout on Tuesday after the ruling Taliban vowed to cut off access as part of a crackdown on “immoral activities,” sparking fears of further isolation for millions living under their increasingly harsh rule.

Internet watchdog Netblocks said late Monday that multiple networks in Afghanistan had been disconnected and that telephone services had also been impacted, resulting in what it said was a “total internet blackout” in the nation of 43 million people.

Afghans abroad told CNN they were unable to reach family members inside the country and on Tuesday morning flight data showed several incoming flights to Kabul were cancelled.

“From yesterday there is no communication with a single person,” Mohammad Hadi, a 30-year-old Afghan who has lived in India’s capital Delhi since 2019 told CNN. “There is no means to talk, to be sure that they are safe or not.”

Hadi described a looming sense of panic among Afghan diaspora suddenly cut off from their loved ones.

“It is disrupting everything, I mean, everything is connected, at least we could make a call before,” he said.

Kabul-based Tolo News TV reported that the shutdown had severely affected its operations. The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse international news agencies both said they had been unable to contact their bureaus in the capital Kabul.

The blackout appears to be the most extensive and coordinated telecom shutdowns in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, raising fears of a return to the strictures of previous Taliban rule, which banned television, satellites and other mass communication devices in its war on immorality.