Fiber-optic cables and mobile Internet servers across Afghanistan stopped working on Tuesday, and no explanation from the Taliban government followed. It is believed that they are further expanding the partial Internet shutdown imposed earlier in some of the country's northern provinces. At the time, a spokesman for Balkh province said that the goal was "prevention of immoral activities”.
The reaction came today (October 1). The Taliban government denied reports of an Internet ban in the country and specified that the old fiber-optic cables were worn out and needed to be replaced, before "Associated Press" (AP), citing a statement from government officials in a chat with Pakistani journalists.
A reaction followed from the Ministry of Morality, which assured that the Taliban did not intend to cut off the country from the internet forever. “For us, the ban on the internet is logically unacceptable“, said the spokesman for the ministry in question, Saiful Islam Khyber, in an interview with ARD last Friday. According to him, the goal is rather to have strict filtering of internet content in the future and, above all, to block access to social networks.
Insecurity among the population
Now the Afghans are in the dark about what is coming. The private news channel TOLO quoted an anonymous government official, according to whom one possible development is that the Taliban will limit internet access to a 2G network, which does not support high speeds and will make it impossible to send anything other than text messages. According to the information, the Taliban have given providers a week to shut down 3G and 4G networks.
This is the first nationwide internet shutdown. It will result in a "complete blackout", says the organization NetBlocks, which monitors cybersecurity.
Impacts on the economy
"The internet problems are the beginning of even more severe repression in Afghanistan", said security expert Bismillah Taban during the first partial network outage. "The Taliban could expand their pressure and information would not reach the international community at all. This is very worrying".
Business owners have warned that the lack of internet access will have serious consequences. The fiber-optic internet network is mainly used by companies, banks, and government agencies. "Currently, 80 percent of business is conducted online. "We are already facing serious challenges. We should not open a wider gap between the people and the authorities," wrote X Khan Yan Alokozai, vice president of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce during the previous blockade, on the platform.
"Dark days" are ahead
Sayed Ahmad Shah Sadaat, who served as Afghanistan's education minister from 2016 to 2018, also warns of serious potential consequences. "Problems with the fiber optic network, which people rely on for their education, trade, and banking systems, will negatively affect all aspects of life. The Taliban have no intention of offering an alternative system. "If the network is cut off, Afghanistan will face dark days," she told DW.
According to the former minister, the administration will be under even greater pressure, as all its structures and offices use an internet connection.
International media organizations have also criticized the Taliban's move. "Shutting down the internet across the country is an unprecedented escalation of censorship that will undermine journalistic work," said Beh Li Yi, regional director of the Commission to Protect Journalists. "The Taliban must end their repression and unconditionally restore access to the internet, which is crucial for information."
End of online education for girls?
For girls and women, this decision could have particularly severe consequences. After being banned from attending schools and universities, many have turned to online learning, their only way to continue learning. “My students had wireless internet, but it doesn’t work anymore,” said Afghan filmmaker Saraa Karimi, who teaches students in her home country but lives abroad. “My heart is broken. How am I supposed to teach the girls now?”
For many students, the internet connection is their last connection to teachers and lessons. “Every blackout further distances the Afghan youth from the intellectual foundations of the country and deepens their despair,” Karimi said.