The entire country of Afghanistan has just entered a total communications blackout. At 5pm on Monday 29 September, Taliban authorities cut the country’s fibre-optic backbone, reducing internet and mobile connectivity to less than 1% of normal operations according to internet watchdog NetBlocks. The UN has called for services to be restored immediately, warning of severe economic and humanitarian risks.
Air travel halted without warning. Reportedly, Turkish airlines flying into Kabul were not given advance notice of the internet shutdown, opting for a sudden cancellation. Everything from border operations to daily shopping, bureaucratic procedures, international trade and tourism has been cut off in an instant, and diplomatic sources say the shutdown will “remain in place until further notice”.
The Taliban Just Took a Whole Country Offline
Officials have framed the move as a morality measure, aimed at stopping vice like pornography access, after weeks of progressively severing fibre links province by province. On the ground, the effective is boundless, throttling phones, banking, customs, media, schools, hospitals and aid work with one sweeping decision. Kabul residents report being blind without phones and internet that support everyone’s day-to-day lives, and the outages continue with no clear line on when they’ll be back up and running.
Why It Happened
Officially, there is no specific reason for this week’s total blackout. However, earlier this month, a spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Balkh province wrote on X that the ban on fibre-optic internet was meant to curb “evils”. He added that authorities would explore alternatives.
This week’s connectivity cut-off is the latest in a series of Taliban-enforced restrictions introduced since they returned to power in the country. Already this month, they removed books written by women from the country’s education system – part of a new ban that’s also outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment.
Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered a “complete internet ban” earlier this month, starting in smaller provinces first. Haji Attaullah Zaid from the Balkh administration said “this measure was taken to prevent immorality, and an alternative will be built within the country for necessities”.
Mahbob Shah Mahbob, an exiled Afghan journalist, said there was “concern about people accessing pornographic content inside Afghanistan”. He added that “they’re also concerned about how their extremist rule is being perceived by the outside world and the bad publicity”.
A UN official in Kabul, on condition of anonymity, told news sources that “no notice was given today, but sporadic bans here and there were rolling out over the past few weeks in parts of the country”
It’s Not Just About Afghanistan
The blackout hits international aviation, cross-border trade, remittances and humanitarian operations that rely on digital links for coordination and clearance. The UN has flagged critical risk to healthcare, payments and information access, particularly for women and girls who have already been forced into online spaces for services denied offline.
Foreign arrivals, while still modest, have risen sharply under Taliban rule as niche adventure tourism opened historic routes to Kabul, Herat, Bamiyan and Mazar-i-Sharif. 9,000 foreign tourists visited in 2024, and over 3,000 made the trip in the first quarter of 2025 according to official reports. Today, an unknown number of those visitors face cancelled flights, offline land borders, and no internet to contact families or embassies. It’s impossible now to know how many, but undoubtedly foreigners are trapped inside the country with no support whatsoever.
Who Gets Hit the Hardest?
- Humanitarian aid agencies are falling back to radio and limited satellite links, slowing life-saving work and complicating security coordination
- Everyday commerce is suffering with banking, payment networks and supply chains stalling while communication is offline, hitting markets and medicine deliveries by the hour
- Travellers and residents unable to enter or leave the country with cancelled flights and visa and ticketing systems offline. Even overland crossings depend on digital systems, affecting personal freedoms and international trade routes
So, What’s Happening in the Darkness?
If past shutdowns in other countries are a guide, authorities may be detaining critics, conducting raids, or pushing through policy that would face pushback if visible to the outside world in real time. The information vacuum allows for total narrative control when services partially return, for example by throttling internet speeds or limiting access to international platforms.
Final Thought
This is a deliberate, nationwide switch off. A population bigger than Poland, Ukraine or California has been plunged into darkness. Afghans – and quite probably, foreign tourists too – are suddenly stranded from the rest of the world, and critical humanitarian support has been totally disabled. Most importantly, it displays a government willing to make drastic changes, risking absolute disruption to the daily lives of its citizens, to impose what it considers moral restrictions.
Join the Conversation
What do you think is happening during the blackout? Is it as simple as banning pornography, or is there more at play here? Should the international community just stand by and watch? Tell us your thoughts below.
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Categories: Breaking News, World News
And to think just 30 years ago we don’t even have Internet
Hi,
Totally right. But to have slowly been weaned into dependence on it, and then have it switched off without warning, is a worrying precedent. Everything depends on it nowadays, and there’s no way of knowing what’s going on in the country as a result. I do not want to make baseless accusations, but having no way of reaching the voices inside, it’s incredibly concerning to consider what might be happening.
While it seems obvious now, it hadn’t previously occurred to me that a whole country could just be “switched off” like that. It may not be the last time we see it either.
Regards,
G Calder
My concern has been, since the beginning of the internet age, that “switching off” could happen “just like that” by anyone. We are all subject to that now. In addition to weather events or other “natural” ones that disrupt the services. It doesn’t take much to cause disruption. As tech “advanced” as it might seem we are, we live in a very tenuous situation, it seems to me.
having worked in technology for 35 years the achilles heel is needing power to run the control system and solar storm or man-made equivalent that can take out the entire grid.
I agree. We were always aware of our dependency on electricity. Hospitals, for example, have back-up supply to kick-in if there is a mains failure. But the internet? How do you create a back-up for this without being spotted?
Stop relying on it then.
No one can switch off my maps or compass or navigation tables….or my mechanical watch and my learned ability to work out where I am using the sun moon and stars.
I’m not sure what your point is related to Afghanistan today. The problem has been well explained above. Now we depend on this for communication. Air travel ceases without it or at least becomes very dangerous. Banks and Hospital systems sieze up. Plus many more things we depend upon today.
it depends on whether you can access money in physical form of some sort for essentials eg food, water etc and transport . If these are restricted in any form ,this is criminal behaviour and what we expect from the world wide govt these days ,is it not ?? Also it now doesn’t matter where it is happening
CORRECT!
Anything that makes your life easier, more comfortable, is controlled by power-crazed psychopaths. 40 million people, anywhere in the world, coming together with the sole purpose of looking after and protecting each other would make a hell of a difference, it really wouldn’t matter what the psychopaths did. I know that’s never going to happen, too many are addicted to modern convenience and control but i can dream.
yes, not sure why this article is not looking at it from another angle – one that could mean they are distancing themselves from the control of the UN etc. – it seems to be a very bias article for example “and quite probably, foreign tourists too – are suddenly stranded from the rest of the world, and critical humanitarian support has been totally disabled.” – you mean the ‘humanitarian support’ provided by the UN…or the ‘humanitarian support’ provided by the US invasion? for me this sums it up perfectly “The UN has called for services to be restored immediately, warning of severe economic and humanitarian risks.” – seems like they are worried that afghanistan maybe escaping their clutches – hoping more countries will do the same and disconnect from the evil internet which was created and weaponised by DARPA.
Hi Raj,
Do you think this is about the Taliban distancing themselves from the UN and international aid? If so, please add some additional information and sources in here, as I’d be interested to learn more about it.
Regards,
G Calder
Don’t stop dreaming Alison! I dream of a psychopath-proof system for running society.
Yeh support digital currency idjuts this is what will happen and you’ll be queuing up in food banks under total control of the globalist
Hardly a blackout. Anyone would think that the world didn’t before the Internet. I travelled the world in the late 70s and early eighties with things called ‘maps’ and using ‘radios’ for ‘communication’ and direction finding along with something called a ‘compass’. I did this in the deserts of Africa, the jungles of central America, the arctic and antarctic…travellers in those days could find their way around the world. I had a friend who could use a sextant. Nowadays you are all screwed. This is why I will have no trouble ditching my not so smart phone if the world goes digital….a world in which I will not play…
Hello,
It is absolutely an internet blackout. Travelling with a map and compass is a completely different matter to stalling an entire country’s international trade, shops receiving deliveries, a whole population from getting an education, or the general functionality of hospitals, transport, press, and communication.
I do not disagree with you about how infectious the internet has become, and how much less independent people are today. But, specifically, how do you propose people “stop relying on it” for the above?
Regards,
G Calder
Random comments…
Anyone knows what Afghan economic depency is under Taliban? But they are protected by CIA operatives. Weird, right!
How about Poppy flower plantations? Does ring a bell to anyone..?
Talking about compass… this is a common sense about compas… Why we only use North pointer? No matter where we are, South pointer always point south, right..?! So, try use south pointer at Australia or New Zealand for guiding. I guaranteed that you walk in perfect 30km circle over and over.
Do you want know why? Because we lived on plane under the celestial dome with North is the center and south actually ring of ice. Refer the Gleason Map for truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pr82VbNZ94
How the taliban operate.
Thanks for the link BUT the documentary only scratches the surface of the reality of what’s is goin on in deep mountains terrains of Afganistan. Very limited and strict access allowed for anyone especially journalis.
The source of income of CIA from squeezing afghan people producing the drug for every single army in USA for emergency use if got shot (Morphine) and for entertainment industry in Hollywood are in horrified quantity because can bypass all borders or laws.
Afghanistan also sanctuary for Nephilim Giants. The CIA stationed there to block all secret informations from leaking out about giants still lived (Gog & Magog).
The article says, “authorities may be detaining critics, conducting raids, or pushing through policy that would face pushback if visible to the outside world in real time. The information vacuum allows for total narrative control.” This is what worries me – North Korea is case in point.
This is an example of the degree of power western governments want. The difference is western governments need our total addiction before they start to dictate.
The question is how do we curb this corruption in government?
What a backwards dung heap of a place run by the Islamic religion, a perfect example of what Islam does when in control of a country, the people suffer while 1% of the leaders live in luxury.
this could also be changed to: “a perfect example of what western government does when in control of a country, the people suffer while 1% of the leaders live in luxury.”
They know what’s coming.
No internet – no pandemic with the speed of a flash – just who and what controls who? We all jumped and reverberated with the hum of the internet fear mongering. In 1981 it was written that the people won’t accept what has to be done – you have to get them to demand it. Demanding is made easier with the instant access and we did demand it.
Profound or what?