Afghanistan sees telecom shutdown as Taliban cut off internet (BBC News)

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxqdy5nrlqo
The Taliban government in Afghanistan has imposed a nationwide shutdown of telecommunications, weeks after it began severing fibre-optic internet connections.

The country is currently experiencing a "total internet blackout", internet watchdog Netblocks reports.

International news agencies say they have lost contact with offices in the capital Kabul. Mobile internet and satellite TV have also been severely disrupted across Afghanistan.

The Taliban have yet to give an official reason for the shutdown. Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

A Taliban official said the telecom shutdown would last until further notice.

Tolo News, a privately owned Afghan news channel, told people to follow its social media pages for updates as it expected disruptions to its television and radio networks.

Flights from Kabul airport have also been disrupted, local media reported.

According to Flight tracking service Flightradar24, at least eight flights scheduled to depart from or arrive at Kabul International Airport on Tuesday have been cancelled.

Diplomatic officials have told the BBC that the internet cuts could affect banking and e-commerce systems nationwide.

Several people in Kabul have told the BBC that their fibre-optic internet stopped working towards the end of the working day, around 17:00 local time (12:30 GMT)

Because of this, it is understood many people will not notice the impact until Tuesday morning, when banking services and other businesses are due to resume.

Fibre-optic cables transfer data super fast, and are used for much of the world's internet.

The BBC understands that a committee in Kabul has been tasked to examine potentially "filtering" fibre-optic internet in order to "prevent immoralities". The committee would also determine whether the fibre-optic ban would be enforced across the country, they said.

In a post on social network Mastodon.social, Netblocks said:

"Afghanistan is now in the midst of a total internet blackout as Taliban authorities move to implement morality measures, with multiple networks disconnected through the morning in a stepwise manner; telephone services are currently also impacted".

For weeks internet users in several Afghan provinces have been complaining about either slow internet access or no connectivity.

Several residents, who requested anonymity, previously told the BBC that their businesses and lives had been seriously affected by the internet cuts.

A man who works as a money changer in Takhar province said that his daughters' online English classes were disrupted. "Their last opportunity to study and stay engaged is now gone," he said.

Another woman previously told the BBC that she could not attend online classes since her home internet was cut off. "I had hoped to finish my studies and find an online job, but that dream has also been destroyed," she said. "Without internet access, I don't know what will happen next."

Hamid Haidari, former editor-in-chief of Afghan news channel 1TV, said on Monday that "loneliness enveloped the entire country" after the shutdown.

"Afghanistan has now officially taken first place in the competition with North Korea for [internet] disconnection" he said on X.

"The silence online without Afghan voices from inside Afghanistan is deafening," Mariam Solaimankhil, a former member of Afghanistan's parliament now based in the US, wrote in a post tagging X owner Elon Musk.

A spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Balkh wrote on X earlier this month that the ban on fibre-optic internet was meant to curb "evils". He added that authorities would explore alternatives.

The blackout is the latest in a series of restrictions which the Taliban have enforced since returning to power.

Earlier this month they removed books written by women from the country's university teaching system as part of a new ban which has also outlawed the teaching of human rights and sexual harassment.

Women and girls have also been particularly hard-hit: they are barred from accessing education beyond the age of 12, with one of their last routes to further training cut off in late 2024, when midwifery courses were quietly shut down.

A university student told the BBC that she had "no other choice except online study" after her midwifery course was banned. "When I heard that the internet had been cut, the world felt dark to me," she said.

The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021 in a lightning advance, weeks after the withdrawal of US and other international forces.
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From yesterday:
Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.

“Physically pulling the plug on fibre internet would therefore also shut down mobile and fixed-line telephone services,” Netblocks said.

“It may turn out that disconnecting internet access while keeping phone service available will take some trial and error.”
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In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-km (5,800-mile) fibre-optic network – largely built by former US-backed governments – as a “priority” to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ommunications-blackout-taliban-shuts-internet
 
Serious consideration might be given to permanently cutting Afghanistan's outside telecommunication landlines while it's controlled by a group of far-right religious fanatics.
 
F
NMaude said:
Serious consideration might be given to permanently cutting Afghanistan's outside telecommunication landlines while it's controlled by a group of far-right religious fanatics.
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Far right???
 
Pashto language: talib singular, taliban plural.
On another note
- Latin: datum singular, data plural
- Latin: visum singular, visa plural
File under 'loanwords, maltreatment of'.
 
Arjen said:
Pashto language: talib singular, taliban plural...
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Exactly, طالب (tālib) is a loanword from the Arabic طَالِب (ṭālib) for 'student'. But plurals differ. As an eastern Iranian language, Pashto uses the absolute plural suffice 'an' - hence طالبان (tāliban) in Pashto.
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jq2q5jnw3o
Afghans have taken to the streets to rejoice in the restoration of internet and telecom services after the Taliban government shut them down, provoking widespread condemnation.

Local reporters said communications were resuming, while internet monitor Netblocks said network data showed a "partial restoration" of connectivity.

A source close to the government confirmed to BBC Afghan that the internet was back by order of the Taliban prime minister.

The 48-hour blackout disrupted businesses and flights, limited access to emergency services and raised fears about further isolating women and girls whose rights have been severely eroded since the hardline Islamist group swept back to power in 2021.

On Wednesday evening hundreds of Afghans took the streets in the capital city Kabul to spread the word that the internet was back.

[snip]
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Which IQ tests were used to obtain those statistics?
Was one universal test used? If not, how are results from different IQ tests collated to create an overview?
Many IQ tests show significant cultural bias.
 
Arjen said:
Which IQ tests were used to obtain those statistics?
Was one universal test used? If not, how are results from different IQ tests collated to create an overview?
Many IQ tests show significant cultural bias.
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There are nomerous sources....

If you want another result, you need some creativity for a new test, e.g. how successful people are in getting the maximun amount of German welfare...
 
From your link:
Speaking clearly, I think the largest issue with comparing cognitive tests across countries are education and effort. Education causes people’s IQ scores to increase because they become more familiar with standardised testing and improve their skills in maths/reading, but don’t actually get more intelligent. As such, more educated countries should have higher IQ scores that are not reflective of superior general intelligence. Some people have theories that IQ tests are biased by effort across countries, but I don’t see much evidence for this; empirical attempts to assess the question have found the opposite (check the appendix of said paper).

Alternatively, one could argue that there are factors that shrink the observed averages, like using between group standard deviations and imperfectly g-loaded tests. Overall, I would guess that the differences between countries are slightly inflated.
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It's about control, total control...
The Internet is dangerous for Taliban, because it can bring Information, new ideas, other views on things.
The Taliban as theocratic fanatics want control the narrative to control the population.
Even it's destroy there communication network.

But there is Starlink
i guess some terminals hidden In Afghanistan forming little internet oasis.
 
Arjen said:
From your link:
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Things writen with "I see...." are just personql opinions. Here its more about feeling uncomfortable with the results and nothing backed seriousl backed up (I have to say, your link doesn't work, so I might miss something)
 
Nicknick said:
https://cognitivemetrics.com/calculator/world-map
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It came via the linked site you provided yourself.
This map was created by integrating GWAS estimates and other genotypic IQ studies with SebJenSeb's dataset, which combines several different official studies. It serves solely as an approximation of the average genotypic IQs within a country's population and should not be viewed as a rigorous study.
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That one linked to another site:
https://www.technotheoria.org/p/most-accurate-national-iqs-possible
 
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So according go youre quotation, education and training the brain will not make people become more intelligent. I highly doubt that and this theory is contradicting just about every common sense
 
Sebastian Jensen's point is education improves the ability to score well at IQ tests. Something you yourself indirectly linked to.
I agree proper education will help people improve information gathering and processing.
The hereditary determinants of intelligence are not affected by education. They can be affected by physical properties of the environment we live in.
 
One theory is, intelligence shrinks over generations when people live in areas with high child mortebility. At least this effect is fair, because it happens to every ethnicity....

Incest is another problem, in the moslemic worls, marrieges are often arranged between cousins whichnot onle reduces inteligence (I remember it was about 5 points) but also causes a lot of diseases and high health insurance costs...

To be fair, things can change with age and people in India suffer much less from demetia than Europeens.

One intresting side note, the avarage American natives scores higher in the IQ tests than the avarage “Caucasien" (stupid name and scientifically nonsens). So despite heaving an avarage lower income and education, they are still smarter than those with an Europeen heritage. This is hard to explain by anything else than genetics.
 
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