ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban’s restrictions on the internet and social media are violating the rights of Afghans, United Nations experts said Friday, following severe disruption to telecom services during the past few weeks.

Afghanistan experienced a 48-hour internet blackout from Sept. 29 that coincided with a morality drive imposed by the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who had earlier ordered fiber-optic services to be cut in several provinces.

Authorities confirmed the fiber-optic ban, but did not comment on the two-day outage.

Although connectivity was largely restored on Oct. 1, U.N. experts, including the special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said the Taliban have restricted access to popular social media platforms since Oct. 7.

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