The Taliban officially denied reports of a complete internet outage in Afghanistan. According to Al Jazeera, the Taliban described this situation as a "temporary technical issue related to the replacement of outdated fiber-optic cables." The official statement says, "The claims about us banning the internet are unfounded."
However, the global network monitoring organization Netblocks noted on September 29 that the internet was completely blocked in a country with a population of 43 million. During this period, problems also arose with telephone communication.
The Taliban has previously restricted internet services in some provinces due to the "fight against moral violations." For example, fiber-optic internet has been completely shut down in Balkh province, and similar restrictions have been implemented in Badakhshan, Takhar, Helmand, Kandahar, and Nangarhar provinces.
According to TOLOnews, the Taliban ordered the shutdown of 3G and 4G services on mobile devices within a week, with over 8,000 communication poles temporarily disabled, according to local sources.
The disconnection of the Internet, along with personal communication, negatively affected aviation, the banking system, and trade activities. This event occurred just a few weeks after a powerful earthquake in the east of the country, which killed more than 2,000 people. On October 1, internet and communication services were restored in Afghanistan.
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