Error 404: A 48-hour internet blackout causes bewilderment in Afghanistan

After the Taliban abruptly shut down the phone and internet networks, life in Afghanistan came to a complete stop for two days, leaving banks paralyzed, planes stranded, and hospitals in disarray. For weeks, authorities in a number of regions have been blocking broadband access in an effort to stop "vice" at the directive of the supreme leader of the Taliban.

However, nobody in Kabul was ready for a national shutdown. With their phones held high in the air, young Kabulis first traveled to strategic locations throughout the hilly capital in the hopes of receiving a signal. After that, they made several attempts to purchase SIM cards from various providers before giving up.

It became hard for the 48 million individuals living in Afghanistan to use valuable remittances from overseas to pay their bills or to transmit news to their family members. Some citizens of Herat and Kandahar traveled to border towns in order to receive signals from Pakistan and Iran, their neighbors. With no news from the outside world, however, rumors grew to the beat of helicopters throughout the rest of the nation.