The Taliban’s curious love of SIM cards.
The Taliban’s curious love of SIM cards.
Ai generated TLDR:
The Taliban is distributing free SIM cards to Afghan refugees, likely to collect biometric data for tracking and surveillance purposes. SIM cards are valuable to governments for controlling communication networks and monitoring populations. Despite economic uncertainty, Afghanistan's telecom industry has reported positive growth, with plans for building new towers. The Taliban's regressive policies have barred women and girls from working, being educated, or visiting parks, and the value of tracking them is higher for the Taliban than the risk of giving them access to the world's information. Internet shutdowns and government control over communication networks can cause economic and civilian harm, yet they are becoming increasingly common worldwide.
Sounds like we need to push Signal in Afghanistan!
Signal won't do much when they're able to triangulate your position with cell tower data.
They're also "phone-only SIMs" which I'm guessing means voice only, no data.
As you didn't read the article:
“This move seems driven by the government’s interest in collecting and centralizing biometric data for identification, tracking, and surveillance purposes,” he said. Omar agreed: “Probably to keep track of the refugees.”
They hand out SIM cards to track those SIM cards. Using a certain messaging app on the phone or not doesn't change SIM card tracking within the network.
Fuck the Taliban, fuck religious extremism and the agendas it thinly masks. But I really came to say that looking at that photo I really feel like I am about to start a new runner video game playing as that kid in the top left.
The original Prince of Persia, you mean?