Afghanistan experiences massive communications blackout after Taliban shut down internet

Afghanistan has seen a massive internet outage after Taliban authorities began restricting access to fiber optic lines in several provinces, The Guardian reports.

According to NetBlocks, a cybersecurity and internet governance monitoring organization, the national connection rate has dropped to 1%. NetBlocks says the incident appears to be a deliberate service outage. Telephone services in the country are also at risk, as they are mostly transmitted over the same fiber optic lines due to limited infrastructure.

According to representatives of the organization, finding a way to turn off the internet and at the same time leave telephone services may not be easy.

Taliban authorities began tightening their grip on the internet in early September, and since then, many areas have experienced extremely slow or unstable connections. On September 16, Balkh provincial spokesman Ataullah Zaid said that the internet in the region had been completely shut down by order of the leadership "to prevent sinful activities."

Similar restrictions have been recorded in the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar in the north, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar and Urzgan in the south of the country.

As recently as 2024, Kabul authorities were touting a 9,350-kilometer fiber-optic network, built largely with U.S. support, as a priority for economic development and global integration. At the same time, the Taliban, who have returned to power, are imposing increasing restrictions in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.