Taliban block TikTok, PUBG battleground game in Afghanistan

Kabul, Apr 21 (EFE).- The ruling Taliban Thursday said it had banned the popular Chinese social media application TikTok because it “misleads the younger generation” of Afghans.

The de facto Afghan government also blocked the popular South Korean PUBG action game and barred Afghan television channels from airing “immoral” content.

“The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology have to block PUBG and an application called Tick Tock, which misleads the younger generation,” Taliban spokesperson Inamullah Samangani tweeted.

He said the Taliban government also decided to extend the moral policing restrictions on TV channels to prevent them from airing “programs that are immoral” per the Islamic law and the Afghan culture.

Earlier, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice had banned airing content from international cinema and TV networks and barred women from appearing in fictional programs.

The Taliban have banned high school girls from attending classes and restricted women from traveling alone, justifying the restrictions in line with their rigid interpretation of the Islamic code.

The curbs reintroduced since the fundamentalists came to power on Aug.15, 2021, came despite their promises that the Islamist rule in a new avatar would be different from the first Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001,

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was one of the most feared institutions during the first Taliban rule notoriously known for its harsh measures like confining women to the homes and prohibited music.

HOwever, the ban on TikTok or PUBG is not limited to Afghanistan.

India blocked some 120 Chinese mobile applications in September 2020, including the popular video game, months after banning TikTok, following a military stand-off on a disputed border.

Pakistan has intermittently banned the Chinese social network for alleged obscene content, and former US President Donald Trump has also tried unsuccessfully to block TikTok. EFE

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