The Taliban has officially banned PUBG and TikTok in Afghanistan. The reason is that these apps and games are called misleading young Afghans.
The blockade was announced by Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani. In his statement, Samangani said the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Afghanistan took the decision because the content of these two applications misled the younger generation.
"We receive a lot of complaints about how the TikTok app and PUBG games are wasting people's time," Samangani told Bloomberg, as quoted by The Independent, Sunday (24/4/2022).
"The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was ordered to pull this application from the internet server and make it inaccessible to everyone in Afghanistan," he continued.
It is not known when this ban will take effect and for how long. It is the first time the Taliban have blocked an app since coming to power in Afghanistan in August last year.
This decision was taken at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. This directive is in line with the cultural and religious policies implemented by the Taliban to limit social life.
PUBG and TikTok are two popular apps among young Afghans looking for online entertainment. The reason is, since the Taliban came to power entertainment such as movies, music, and soap operas have been banned.
Afghanistan also banned Krafton which is a subsidiary of PUBG. The Afghan government has previously tried to block PUBG but to no avail.
The number of internet users in Afghanistan has grown rapidly in recent years, along with the growth of its youth population. The blocking of PUBG and TikTok will affect nine million internet users in Afghanistan.