In a sweeping move, the Taliban government in Afghanistan imposed a nationwide shutdown of telecommunications, just days after they began disconnecting fibre-optic internet connections in several provinces to prevent "vice," The Guardian reported. Netblocks, a watchdog organization monitoring cybersecurity and internet governance, announced, "a nationwide telecoms blackout is now in effect," appearing to be "consistent with the intentional disconnection of service." “We’re now observing national connectivity at 14% of ordinary levels,” the watchdog added. According to a BBC report, international news agencies have lost contact with offices in the Capital city of Kabul. Mobile internet and satellite TV have too been "severely disrupted" across Afghanistan. A Taliban official told BBC that the telecom shutdown would last until further notice. The Taliban's crackdown on internet access began early this month, when it imposed a ban on fibre-optic internet in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province, cutting off homes, businesses, and government offices from high-speed WiFi access. Since then, internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent across the country. Flight disruptions at Kabul airport The internet ban has caused flights from Kabul airport to remain disrupted, as per local media reports. According to Flight tracking service Flightradar24, quoted by the BBC, at least eight flights scheduled to depart from or arrive at Kabul International Airport on Tuesday have been cancelled. Immediate impact of the internet ban Over a post on social network Mastodon.social, Netblocks stated, "Afghanistan is now in the midst of a total internet blackout as Taliban authorities move to implement morality measures, with multiple networks disconnected through the morning in a stepwise manner; telephone services are currently also impacted." “Physically pulling the plug on fibre internet would therefore also shut down mobile and fixed-line telephone services,” Netblocks' statement read. Meanwhile, former editor-in-chief of Afghan news channel 1TV, Hamid Haidari, shared that "loneliness enveloped the entire country," following the shutdown. "Afghanistan has now officially taken first place in the competition with North Korea for [internet] disconnection" he wrote over a post on X. "The silence online without Afghan voices from inside Afghanistan is deafening," Mariam Solaimankhil, a former member of Afghanistan's parliament now based in the United States, wrote in a post tagging X owner Elon Musk. History of internet ban in Afghanistan 2025: The ban imposed on September 15 this year was first-of-its-kind since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. While mobile internet remained functional, all cable connections were disabled by the order of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. Provincial spokesman Haji Attaullah Zaid had then stated the “complete ban” was aimed at preventing immorality. “An alternative will be built within the country for necessities,” he had told the Associated Press, however, there have been no details so far. 2021: Since the Taliban assumed power in 2021, citizens have been worried about imposition of restrictions on access to internet services in the country. While there were a few complaints of internet disruptions in some provinces then, overall internet traffic appeared to remained steady, according to a report in The Indian Express. 2017: Before assuming power, in 2017, Afghanistan’s telecoms regulator had written to internet service providers, ordering them to block the messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram. However, services continued to run normally on both state-owned operator and private service providers across the country. Clearing the air, the then acting minister for telecommunications, Shahzad Aryobee, shared on Facebook that the telecoms regulator had been ordered to put a gradual block on the services to improve their functioning after complaints were brought to light. According to data available on the official website of the World Bank, around 18 per cent of Afghanistan's population were active internet users, as of 2023. In 2025, the internet penetration rate stood at 30.5 per cent of the total Afghan population, accounting for 13.2 million internet users in the country, according to DataReportal.
