Google has temporarily shut down several email accounts of the Afghan government.
A source told the British news agency Reuters that the e-mail accounts had been temporarily blocked due to fears of theft of digital documents left by former government officials and their international associates.
A statement from Alphabet Inc.’s Google on Friday (September 3rd) confirmed the blocking of the Afghan government’s email account.
The biometric and Afghan payroll databases have been at stake for weeks after the Taliban took control of Kabul, overthrowing the old US-backed government in Afghanistan. They are monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and taking temporary measures to secure the accounts.
A former government official told Reuters the Taliban wanted to take control of emails from former officials.
Another activist said last month that the Taliban had instructed him to store information on his ministry’s servers.
The worker said, “If I had done that, they would have got the official contacts and information of the old leaders of the ministry.”
The activist said he disobeyed Taliban orders and then went into hiding. Reuters did not release his name or the name of his ministry for security reasons.