KABUL: Access to several social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, has been “intentionally restricted” in Afghanistan, an Internet watchdog said Wednesday, a week after a 48-hour telecommunications blackout in the country.
Social media sites have been intermittently accessible on smartphones in provinces across the country since Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, while Internet speed is significantly slower than normal.
“The restrictions are now confirmed on multiple providers, the pattern shows an intentional restriction,” said NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cybersecurity and Internet governance.
The disruption is “primarily impacting mobile with some fix-lines also affected.”
The Taliban government has not responded to requests for comment from AFP.
Confusion gripped Afghanistan last Monday when mobile phone service and the Internet went down without warning, freezing businesses and cutting people off from the rest of the world.
The massive blackout came weeks after the government began cutting high-speed Internet connections to some provinces to prevent “immorality,” on the orders of shadowy supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
At the time, Netblocks said the blackout “appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service,” adding that connection slowed to around one percent of ordinary levels.
It is the first time since the Taliban government won their insurgency in 2021 and imposed a strict version of Islamic law that communications have been cut in the country.
The government has yet to comment on the blackout.
For Afghan girls and women in particular, the Internet is a lifeline in a country where they are banned from secondary schools, universities, gyms, parks and most work.
“I would feel really sad if they banned Instagram or other social media because it’s the only way I can connect with the world,” said 24-year-old Ghezal, who asked for only her first name to be used.
“These social media platforms are the main way I stay connected with my friends who live in other countries.”
At the beginning of 2025, 13.2 million people had access to the Internet in Afghanistan — around 30.5 percent of the population, according to the specialist website DataReportal.
Around 4.05 million people were using social media.
Afghan mobile access to Facebook, Instagram intentionally restricted: watchdog
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Afghan mobile access to Facebook, Instagram intentionally restricted: watchdog
- Netblocks said last week’s blackout “appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service”
- Social media sites have been intermittently accessible on smartphones in provinces across the country since Tuesday, while Internet speed is significantly slower than normal
OpenAI’s Altman says world ‘urgently’ needs AI regulation
- Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world “urgently” needs to regulate the fast-evolving technology
NEW DELHI: Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world “urgently” needs to regulate the fast-evolving technology.
An organization could be set up to coordinate these efforts, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said.
Altman is one of a host of top tech CEOs in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, the fourth annual global meeting on how to handle advanced computing power.
“Democratization of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes,” he said on stage, adding that “centralization of this technology in one company or country could lead to ruin.”
“This is not to suggest that we won’t need any regulation or safeguards,” Altman said.
“We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies.”
Many researchers and campaigners believe stronger action is needed to combat emerging issues, ranging from job disruption to sexualized deepfakes and AI-enabled online scams.
“We expect the world may need something like the IAEA for international coordination of AI,” with the ability to “rapidly respond to changing circumstances,” Altman said.
“The next few years will test global society as this technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. We can choose to either empower people or concentrate power,” he added.
“Technology always disrupts jobs; we always find new and better things to do.”
Generative AI chatbot ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users in India, more than a third of whom are students, he said.
Earlier on Thursday, OpenAI announced with Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) a plan to build data center infrastructure in the South Asian country.
