Taliban ban TikTok, PUBG saying apps leading youth astray

The Taliban on Thursday (April 21) ordered a ban against TikTok and PUBG. TikTok is the widely popular video-sharing app while PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is a game. The Taliban insist that the these apps were leading Afghanistan's youth astray.

The apps "made the young generation go astray", the cabinet said in a statement, adding the telecommunications ministry had been ordered to shut them down

The apps are popular among Afghans who are now left with just a few options for entertainment ever since Taliban came to power in Afghanistan last year. The Taliban have banned music, movies and television soaps.

The regime has also directed the ministry to stop TV channels from showing "immoral material", although little is being broadcast beyond news and religious content.

When they came to power after US forces' exit in August last year, the Taliban sought to assure the world that the regime would not be as hardline as the previous one between 1996 and 2001. But the Taliban have slowly introduced suffocating restrictions on social life -- particularly for women.

Most secondary schools for girls remain shuttered, and women are barred from many government jobs and traveling abroad -- or even between cities -- unless accompanied by an adult male relative.

Out of 38 million Afghans, just over 9 million have access to internet, as per information from DataReportal, an independent data collector.

Chinese-owned TikTok has been shut down twice before in neighbouring Pakistan because of alleged "indecent" content.

During their previous regime, the Taliban's feared religious police banned recreational activities such as kite flying and pigeon racing. 

(With inputs from agencies)