70 killed As Afghanistan Hit By Heavy Rains [Video]

Facebook users in Afghanistan fear the Taliban’s plans to block or restrict access to the popular social-media platform will deal a death blow to what is left of free speech in the country.

It is unclear what exactly the “finalized” policy announced last week will entail or how it will be implemented and enforced, but Afghans are bracing for the worst-case scenario.

“This is really the last nail in the coffin of freedom of speech,” Fatema, a Facebook user in Afghanistan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

“Facebook was the only source where most of the news that is censored in the Afghan domestic media was published without censorship,” she said, providing only her first name due to fear of retribution from the Taliban’s hard-line Islamist government.

In announcing the impending move to counter what it called the distracting influence of social media, the Taliban cited the need for young people to focus on their education.

…