Afghanistan

Overview

Afghanistan’s Taliban government banned the Internet in 2001 on the grounds that it was used to broadcast immoral and anti-Islamic material. During this period, the only way for most Afghanis to access the Internet was through telephone lines in neighboring Pakistan. In 2003, the Karzai administration began encouraging Internet use as part of its plan to stimulate economic development and made efforts to improve access for the rural poor. The Constitution of Afghanistan provides for the right to free expression, with the limitation that no law can permit behavior contrary to the provisions of Islam. While this limitation allows for restrictions on various forms of media content, there is currently no evidence that the Internet is filtered. The cost of Internet service is prohibitive for most Afghans, but the government has been working to reduce these barriers.

Access

In November 2006, the Afghan government contracted with Chinese firms to establish a countrywide fiber optic cable network. By 2010, there were at least 46 Internet service providers in Afghanistan (up from only five in 2003). 3G services were introduced in 2012 and are provided by all of Afghanistan’s major telecommunication companies. Despite these advances, as recently as 2010, most rural towns and villages in Afghanistan did not have Internet access. In January 2013, the Afghan government announced a three-fold cut in the price of fiber optic Internet services in an effort to make Internet more accessible to the country's poorer regions.

Control

The regulation of media has been a contested topic in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002. Currently, there is no evidence that the Afghanistan government filters Internet content or engages in online censorship. In 2005, before the national legislature was formed, President Hamid Karzai issued a decree that banned the media in Afghanistan from publishing content that contradicted the teachings of Islam and/or the Afghan Constitution, slandered or insulted individuals, or exposed the identities of victims of violence. This ban legally extends to web content. In 2005, the Telecommunications Services Regulation Act (TSRA) created an independent regulatory agency called the Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority, which is responsible for issuing telecom licenses and promoting sustainable competition for telecom services. The Telecom Regulatory Authority is also authorized to require ISPs or service providers to monitor communications and Internet traffic to trace “harassing, offensive, or illegal” communications.

Activity

More than half the Afghan population has access to mobile phones. In 2011, a local social network was launched in the country, called Paywast, that allows users to create groups through SMS. Given infrastructural limits, access to social networking and online services like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is primarily limited to the urban upper middle class in Afghanistan’s three major cities (Kabul, Jalalabad, and Khost).