And now the Taliban has reportedly begun shutting down internet and phone networks throughout Afghanistan. This unprecedented step has upended everyday life for nearly 43 million borrowers. The unprecedented two-day blackout ignited panic in citizens. It was a stunning example of the tenuous peace that remains in a country that once experienced profound periods of conflict. When the shutdown started, countless residents spoke of their very real concerns over possible violence directed towards them. They feared what being isolated from the rest of the world would mean.
According to monitoring group NetBlocks, this 48-hour shutdown constituted an “internet blackout.” This extraordinary measure limited public and private communication and frozen crucial services, commerce, and civic life, crippling mobility, economic activity, and community ties. By the time the shutdown was finally lifted on Wednesday, internet traffic had increased 1500 percent above normal levels, showing just how vital a reconnection was.
Impact on Daily Life
The impacts of the internet and phone network shutdown were swift and widespread. Fawzia Rahimi, a 52-year-old housewife, lost all means of communicating with her daughters in the United States. This lack of access to loved ones caused many to feel cut off and on edge about the safety of their families.
Abdul Hamid, a 37-year-old money exchanger, incurred heavy losses. The blackout stopped him from purchasing currency to do conversions and transactions outside the system, or selling currency to make payments. The economic implications of this disruption were echoed by Richard Bennett, the UN’s special rapporteur for Afghanistan, who warned that such interruptions could “sink the fragile economy with massive human rights implications.”
Hewad Watander, a journalist based in Kabul, reported that many citizens felt a palpable sense of dread during the blackout. He remarked, “The greatest despair was that people feared Afghanistan had once again been plunged into conflict.” He explained how the void created by blocked communications made for a repressive environment. Folks looked like their souls had left their bodies. Any hope I had for the future might as well have been vaporized.”
Voices from the Ground
When state and federal officials didn’t respond as the crisis worsened, activists and residents turned to other channels to transmit their message. Many were able to avoid detection by relying on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet network to communicate across Afghanistan’s borders. This alternative was out of reach for most, especially those who couldn’t afford the technology or didn’t have the technical know-how to use this new technology.
Nigin, an Afghan activist, described the dire circumstances many faced: “The situation is beyond urgent. We are on the edge of being buried alive.” She shared her experience of walking long distances to deliver messages in person, stating, “I began walking, on foot, from house to house… Wherever I went, I left a message: We continue.”
Fellow activist Mariam Solaimankhil spoke to the larger significance of the blackout. She stated, “The more that they cut off the people and the world from Afghanistan, the more that they can do.” She expressed concern about government actions that could go unreported due to a lack of communication infrastructure: “So, if a public flogging happens or someone gets killed, where’s the proof? It’s not going to be there anymore.”
Government Control and Future Implications
The Taliban has even weaponized this internet blackout as a counter-information strategy to suppress news. Second, they want to minimize outside scrutiny on what they are up to. This is a big deal, Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, said. He reiterated that this development represents a dangerous new age of Afghan government manipulation of comms. Such outages, he argued, let regimes operate with impunity as they are able to delete evidence of human rights abuses.
Sahar Fetrat from Human Rights Watch reflected on the historical context of this event, stating that living offline for those two days felt akin to experiencing Afghanistan 30 years ago. She cautioned that if the disruptions continued, the government response would escalate repression.
Individuals slowly started to be able to use communication services again as the blackout began to lift. They were happy, of course, but concern remained that this wasn’t the end of the threat from shutdowns. Samira, a young woman who experienced the joy of reconnecting her phone after the outage, described the moment: “Some of the girls who had their phones in their bags began turning them on and they were all so happy.” It made clear not only their yearning for a deeper connection, but the precariousness of what they’d built up to that point.
