The Taliban is banning PUBG for being too violent
Afghan government officials accuse the app of immorality and “misleading youth”.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The Taliban has announced that a much-discussed ban on PUBG: Battlegrounds—for “promoting violence” and “misleading youth”—will take effect in Afghanistan within three months,Khaama Pressreports. The decision was announced following a recent meeting between Afghanistan’s Ministry of Telecommunications, a Sharia law enforcement official, and security representatives.
TheTaliban actually ordered this PUBG banback in April this year, but the details and timeline of its implementation have only just been worked out and announced. Afghan telecommunications companies and internet service providers have 90 days to put the ban into action. The ban is focused on PUBG’s mobile version and will also affect TikTok, which companies will have one month to block.
PUBG has been singled out for its violent content, but both apps are charged with “misleading the younger generation” and “wasting people’s time”. I guess I can’t argue with that last one.
PUBG has been a runaway success in Afghanistan. At the beginning of 2021, the game was swallowing up big chunks of the country’s mobile internet traffic at peak times, when it was attracting somewhere in the vicinity of100,000 Afghan players at once. It’s been a source of national moral panic for about the same length of time. Still, given its popularity, you can’t help but wonder if some enterprising soul will give the game a makeover and a new version for the Afghan market, much likethe “patriotic version” PUBG got in China.
The ban is part of a rolling tide of repression that the Taliban has implemented since returning to power in Afghanistan in August last year. The group has alsobanned over 23 million websitesfor “immoral content”. Of course, as Khaama Press' original report points out, Afghan internet users can get their hands on VPNs without much hassle. If the Taliban really wants to cleanse the scourge of PUBG from Afghanistan, it’s probably going to have to try harder.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Apex Legends ditches Steam Deck support: EA says Linux is ‘a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats’
Apex Legends' CEO announces that a ‘large systematic change is required’ after EA didn’t hit monetisation goals
Kojima Productions acquires Death Stranding IP rights, presumably meaning the series will only get more unhinged
