Taliban bans TikTok and PUBG in Afghanistan

The Taliban in Afghanistan have now banned TikTok and PUBG in the country, saying that the apps mislead the younger generation.

TikTok is a video sharing app while PUBG is a popular mobile game. The ban was announced by Taliban spokesperson Inamullah Samangani last week. TikTok's "filthy content was not consistent with Islamic laws," he told Bloomberg.

"We've received a lot of complaints about how the TikTok app and the PUBG game are wasting people's time," said Samangani. "The ministry of communications and information technology was ordered to remove the apps from internet servers and make them inaccessible to everyone in Afghanistan," he further stated.

The Taliban have already banned music, movies and television soap operas which has left Afghans with few options to keep themselves entertained. In a statement on Thursday, the cabinet said that the applications "led the young generation astray." The country has banned PUBG's subsidiary company Krafton as well.

The Taliban, which had earlier claimed that they will take a more liberal approach to government, have been restricting the social lives of Afghani citizens gradually.

In a Gallup survey conducted in February this year, almost 94 percent of Afghans rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering. It also found that a significant portion of the male population in Afghanistan believes that women are not treated with respect in the country.

"For the first time in the history of Gallup surveys in Afghanistan, the majority of men in Afghanistan (60 per cent) do not feel that women are treated with respect and dignity, according to the poll.

Only 9 million Afghans have access to the internet in Afghanistan, a country which has around 38 million people, writes The Independent. There are around four million social media users in the country, and TikTok is one of the popular apps used by young Afghans.

The group has made life miserable for all citizens, particularly women, who are not even allowed to get an education beyond the 6th grade currently.

The Taliban have barred women from boarding flights without a male chaperone. Women are forbidden from taking inter-city road trips alone, they can only visit public parks on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.

All male government employees have been asked to wear a beard to work or risk being fired from their jobs. The regime also recently took a U-turn on its earlier promise of allowing women to get an education and decided not to allow the re-opening of girls' schools beyond sixth grade.