KABUL — The Taliban leadership has issued a series of sweeping decrees strictly banning the use of smartphones by all government employees and members of their own security apparatus, introducing severe penalties including device destruction and court-martial for violators. The strict directive, attributed to Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, officially went into effect this week following formal orders distributed by Taliban military courts.
According to internal directives reviewed by independent human rights monitors and media outlets, the ban explicitly prohibits “high-rank, low-rank, general mujahideen, or service staff” from possessing or operating touchscreen mobile devices. Compulsory compliance measures have already been initiated across more than 20 provinces, including Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat. To enforce the edict, authorities have instituted tracking forms to log employees’ device numbers, while online videos have emerged showing Taliban officials systematically smashing confiscated smartphones with hammers.
Media analysts point to several intersecting strategic factors driving the sudden restriction. Chief among them is a fierce effort to suppress internal leaks, as rank-and-file officials frequently use smartphones to photograph internal state documents, record administrative meetings, and disseminate unauthorized content. Furthermore, the ban acts as an immediate response to recent mass protests in Herat; the Taliban administration previously denied ground reports of their morality police arbitrarily abducting women over dress-code violations, but smartphone footage filmed by local citizens quickly punctured the official narrative and catalyzed international outrage. By stripping public employees and security personnel of digital access, the regime aims to aggressively contract civic space and choke the flow of real-time information to the outside world.
