Internet & Online Safety · Afghanistan
Online safety & content laws in Afghanistan (2026)
Afghanistan shaded by its internet & online safety status
Afghanistan under Taliban rule operates no consumer-protection or online-safety framework comparable to the EU DSA or UK OSA. Internet access is instead controlled through morality-based decrees by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which have produced repeated shutdowns, platform blocks, and — as of May 2026 — orders to sever residential fibre-optic services in Kabul. The regime's approach is one of state suppression rather than safety regulation.
Key points
On 15 September 2025 Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree banning fibre-optic and WiFi services in Balkh, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul and Nimruz provinces to 'prevent immorality', with stated intent to extend the ban nationwide. No legislative process or independent oversight applies.
On 29 September 2025 Taliban authorities imposed a nationwide telecommunications blackout; Cloudflare and NetBlocks recorded less than 1% of normal traffic. Services were restored on 1 October 2025 without explanation, but targeted social-media restrictions (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) followed on 7 October.
ATRA summoned internet providers in May 2026 and, on orders attributed to Mullah Abdul Ahad Fazli (appointed by Akhundzada specifically to tighten restrictions), directed them to disconnect residential fibre-optic services across the capital, threatening hundreds of jobs if implemented.
The 2024 Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law (Article 13 and related provisions) bans the production and viewing of images and video of living beings on computers and mobile phones, effectively criminalising mainstream internet use and social-media content.
ATRA — now folded into the Taliban Ministry of Communications & IT — is empowered to compel operators to monitor and hand over traffic data for 'harassing, offensive, or illegal' communications and national-security cases, with no judicial warrant requirement. It functions as an instrument of state control rather than an independent regulatory body.
In October 2025 UN human-rights experts formally condemned the restrictions as violations of freedom of expression and access to information. Afghanistan has no age-verification regime, no platform-liability framework, and no data-protection law in force.
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