took over<\/a> Afghanistan in 2021, though it has announced other measures including stopping girls going to high school and women working in many different fields.\n <\/p>\n\n The ban will cover five provinces \u2013 Kunduz, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Takhar and Balkh \u2013 in the north of the country, which encompasses the population centers of the region.\n <\/p>\n
\n The restriction is limited to all internet connections via fiber optic cable, officials said. Internet access on cell phone data, however, will be available, they said.\n <\/p>\n
\n All connections have been cut off, according to a statement from the provinces.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis measure has been taken to prevent immoral activities,\u201d the statement said, adding that an alternative will be provided for essential needs.\n <\/p>\n
\n The fiber optic disconnection leaves offices, homes and other businesses without an internet connection.\n <\/p>\n
\n Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said the ban was absurd.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf pornography is really the concern, like as in many Islamic countries, it can easily be filtered. Many countries in the Islamic world do exactly that,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Taliban formally codified a long set of rules governing morality late last year, ranging from requiring women to cover their faces and men to grow beards to banning car drivers from playing music.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Taliban\u2019s restrictions on women<\/a> and freedom of expression have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and many foreign governments.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Kabul, Afghanistan Reuters \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The Taliban administration on Wednesday announced an internet ban across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[49,48,244,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-151744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}