- From September 29, 2025, Afghanistan has shut down the hero all the way down.
- Authorities justified the order as a way of “preventing immoral” but experts believe it comes to silence dissent and limits communication
- VPNs cannot bypass these restrictions where satellite internet and foreign SIM -cards are the only viable options
Afghans are currently living in digital darkness as the Taliban authorities cut off citizens from the rest of the world in an attempt to “prevent immoral.”
Internet Watchdog Netblocks began to trace a deterioration of internet connection levels since the beginning of September. On September 25, experts recorded a pattern of curfew style Internet closures in some regions of the country. Everything collapsed on Monday (September 29) when the country fell into a total interruption of communication as both internet and telephone services stopped working.
According to #Kepiton Global Campaign Manager at Access Now, Felicia Anthonio, Taliban’s movement comes rather as an attempt to tighten their control over the flow of information, silence dissent and shield human rights violations from public control.
“With so many restrictions already in place, this shutdown removes the last remaining lifelines that connect the population of Afghanistan to the outside world,” Anthonio told Techradar.
The tax of Afghanistan’s Internet closure
As Netblocks and Cloudflare Radar’s measurements show, all web and DNS traffic dropped to zero after Cutoff at national level. IP address messages, a system that provides Internet services by linking groups of servers, also fell by two-thirds within the first twenty minutes of blackout.
In addition to these technical conditions, it is practical that most citizens are unable to come online.
Mix Internet Shutdown with the ongoing Telecoms Blackout and you have the perfect recipe to prevent all Aghans from communicating with someone – both in and out of the country.
“The small information coming from Afghanistan shows that Blackout in the Internet has an in -depth impact on all aspects of people’s rights and lives,” Anthonio confirmed to Techradar.
Fear and panic burns worries among concerned citizens who cannot reach out to their loved ones. From education, health and employment to travel and e-commerce, people are also struggling to access important services.
Internet access is anything but a luxury.
“For millions in Afghanistan it’s a lifeline,” Anthonio told Techradar. “For women, girls, journalists and marginalized communities that have already been pushed to the margins of the Taliban policies, connection is often the only way to participate in society.”
In addition to VPNs
Each time the governments enforce online -limits, people turn to bypassing tools like Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps to forgery their IP address and provide access to blocked content.
This time, however, the whole internet is in the dark. Therefore, VPNs cannot do that, leaving Afghans with very limited resources to keep the flow of information going.
According to Proton VPN’s general manager David Peterson, the last time was such a nationwide internet blackout took place in mid-June in Iran lasting for three days.
During most Internet restriction events, Proton VPN users are still able to tunate through to the outside world. But not when the internet is completely disconnected. The last time we saw a total and deliberate nationwide internet blackout like this one was Iran for 3 days in mid-June. https://t.co/qdt5pz3mqfSeptember 29, 2025
Anthonio explains that satellite connection offered by Starlink and similar services becomes a common alternative for people and communities facing the Internet blackouts.
There is only one problem – pricing and accessibility is still a barrier to most people who experience the demand for an internet closure.
This has then brought people to use foreign SIM cards or satellite phones instead. Still, this method comes with a cost to Afghans and it is not about money.
“The Taliban has shown the will to retaliate against those who defy their orders,” explains Anthonio.
What is necessary right now, according to Anthonio, is for the international community to support the rights group, which requires cessation of the violation of people’s rights in Afghanistan.
While the Afghanistan situation is particularly serious, the Taliban is far from being the only government that disrupts the Internet pushing a political agenda forward.
In comments on this point, Anthonio said, “Unfortunately, this feature follows a well -known pattern in the authoritarian Playbook, where authorities are increasingly normalizing the use of internet closures to deny people their human rights.”
