{"id":150056,"date":"2025-09-17T15:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150056\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:50:08","slug":"taliban-orders-complete-ban-on-fibre-optic-internet-in-northern-afghanistan-as-reports-says-order-will-be-enforced-nationwide-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/150056\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban orders ‘complete ban’ on fibre optic internet in northern Afghanistan, as reports says order will be enforced nationwide | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Taliban has banned an Afghanistan province from using fibre optic internet to “prevent immorality”.<\/p>\n

Government offices, the private sector, public institutions, and homes across the northern Balkh province are now disconnected from Wi-Fi internet after the ban, although mobile internet was still functional as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Haji Attaullah Zaid, a provincial Taliban<\/a> government spokesman, said the “complete ban” of cable internet was ordered by Afghanistan’s<\/a> Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.<\/p>\n

Mr Zaid added that the measure “was taken to prevent immorality, and an alternative will be built within the country for necessities”.<\/p>\n

It’s unclear why Balkh province was chosen for the ban, or if the shutdown would spread to other provinces.<\/p>\n

\"Mobile<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Mobile internet was still functional as of Tuesday, but was described as slow and expensive. File pic: AP<\/p>\n

Local news outlet, Afghanistan International, reports that the fibre optic internet ban will be nationwide and is already in effect in the Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand and Nimroz provinces.<\/p>\n

Disruption has also been reported in the Baghlan, Ghazni, Parwan and Herat provinces.<\/p>\n

A source told the website: “The order from the Taliban leader is irreversible and will be enforced nationwide.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One Balkh resident told the Associated Press that “blocking the internet is beyond my comprehension in such an advanced era,” adding that mobile internet can be slow and expensive.<\/p>\n

He said: “If this ban continues, it will not only be detrimental to my business but also to others because all our business is done on the internet.<\/p>\n

“We do business with people in the outside world and maintain relationships through it. I might have to move from Mazar-e-Sharif (the capital of Balkh) to another province because I cannot afford the loss.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
In pictures: Trump’s state visit so far<\/a>
How the US lost its longest war<\/a>
Fake Labubu dolls seized<\/a><\/p>\n

It marks the first such ban since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan<\/a> after the withdrawal of US and Western troops in 2021.<\/p>\n

Afghan authorities have sometimes suspended the mobile phone network for security reasons, usually during religious festivals, to prevent the detonation of explosive devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Taliban has banned an Afghanistan province from using fibre optic internet to “prevent immorality”. Government offices, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,237,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-150056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}