To deprive the Taliban of data… Google shuts down the Afghan government’s accounts

Google has temporarily shut down an unspecified number of Afghan government e-mail accounts as concerns grow over digital paper data left behind by former officials and their international partners, an informed person said.

In the weeks since the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan from the US-backed government, reports have highlighted how the new rulers are exploiting Afghan biometric databases and payroll to hunt down their enemies.

In a statement on Friday, Alphabet’s Google search engine failed to confirm the closure of the Afghan government’s accounts and said the company was monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and “taking interim measures to secure the relevant accounts”.

A former government employee told Reuters that the Taliban were seeking to obtain the e-mails of the former officials.

Late last month, the employee said the Taliban asked him to keep the data on the ministry’s servers where he worked.

“If I do that, they will have access to the official data and communications of the former ministry leadership,” he said.