Privacy at Risk: Taliban Orders Mandatory Access to User Data

DID Press: Taliban’s supreme leader has directed the Ministry of Communications to secure formal guarantees ensuring that Afghanistan users’ information and communications are made available to the group’s security agencies. Experts warn the move can severely restrict freedom of expression and citizens’ privacy.

Local sources in Kandahar reported that Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s leader, ordered the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to require telecom operators to provide the government with full access to users’ calls, data, and digital records.

Under the directive, telecom companies are obliged to introduce specific keywords or codes so that whenever they are used by any user, all of that person’s call logs, messages, and digital activity are immediately transmitted to the General Directorate of Intelligence.

According to local sources, the order stems from Taliban concerns over leaks of official documents and their incomplete control over the country’s fiber-optic infrastructure.

Analysts caution that the policy escalate censorship, intensify digital surveillance, and further restrict freedom of expression in Afghanistan’s online sphere.