A Taliban crackdown to “prevent immorality” is spreading across Afghanistan, with more provinces losing access to fiber-optic internet after the country’s leader imposed a complete ban on the technolo

The Taliban administration on Wednesday announced an internet ban across a swathe of northern Afghanistan, “to prevent immoral activities,” provincial government statements said.

A new push to cut nationwide access to the digital world is taking Afghanistan back to the isolationist extremes of decades past

The emerging policy threatens to disrupt government services that had moved online in recent years and to stall humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered a phased shutdown of internet services across Afghanistan,

No information was provided on how many people are being held in each country, who they are or why they were imprisoned.

The Taliban administration has banned fibre-optic internet in an Afghan province to “prevent immorality,” a spokesman for it said on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

A Trump administration envoy met Taliban leaders in Kabul on Saturday to discuss improving relations and possible "investment opportunities" in Afghanistan, the group said. Newsweek has reached out to the State Department and White House for comment via email on Saturday.

The reported visit follows one in March 2025 which led to the release of a US citizen held for more than two years.