Why internet shutdowns hide events

Contributing producer and Kabul-based journalist Ali Latifi tells the story of a roughly 48-hour period, at the end of 2025, when the Taliban turned off the entire internet in Afghanistan.

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Cord Cutters

• https://bsky.app/profile/netblocks.org/post/3mgrehog7wk23
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_massacres
• Shutdown Tracker Optimization Project
• The Internet, Switched Off  
• Internet Shutdown: How Governments Weaponize Connectivity
• Iran’s regime has shut down the internet in the middle of war
• How Iran shut down the internet and built a sophisticated system of digital control
• Afghanistan imposes internet blackout: What has the effect been so far?
• The Kremlin says the internet is turned off to stop drone attacks. Russians are fed up
• Blocked and Bypassed: Russians Evade Internet Censorship 

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Find Ali

• https://authory.com/Ali

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Thank you to Suha, Fara, Saeed, Samir, Ramin, Mohammad, Hamed, Jabar, Sanam Muradi, Haroun Rahimi, Naser, Ahmad Azizi and Saeed.

This episode’s Contributing Producer is Ali Latifi. Never Post’s producers are Audrey Evans, Georgia Hampton and The Mysterious Dr. Firstname Lastname. Our senior producer is Hans Buetow. Our executive producer is Jason Oberholtzer. The show’s host is Mike Rugnetta.

1. These are the vague demands you make on me

2. (that I) assemble
(to) recollect
(to) decode
(   ) associate

3. that I admit, fraught with difficulty, reintegration
is no day at the beach in eggshell tints
“The inmates start to get brave and a little crazy”
when they hear that friendly voice–the matron

4. (But that’s also my mind, lost)
Her epic poem on the constraints society places on the

5. misunderstood

Excerpt of Sybil by Rebecca Wolf 

Never Post is a production of Charts & Leisure and is distributed by Radiotopia