Google has temporarily closed an unspecified number of accounts linked to former Afghan government officials.
According to Pak Sahafat on Saturday, quoted by Reuters, according to an informed source, the reason for Google’s action is the concern over the interception of the remaining digital documents of former Afghan officials and their international partners.
Ever since the Taliban took control of the situation in Afghanistan, there have been reports of how a biometric database, as well as information on the salaries of Afghan citizens, could be misused by the new rulers to identify their enemies.
Google has denied publicly acknowledging that the Afghan government-owned accounts have been blocked, but said the company is monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and is taking temporary steps to secure the accounts.
A former Afghan government official told Reuters that the Taliban group was seeking access to emails from former Afghan government officials. He said in late May that the Taliban had asked him to keep track of the servers of the ministry where he worked.
The former Afghan government official rejected the Taliban’s request and has been in hiding ever since.
Records show that a number of Afghan government agencies have used Google servers to manage their official emails, including the Ministries of Finance, Industry, Higher Education and Mines.
The Office of Presidential Protocols of Afghanistan has also used Google.
Directing government databases and emails can provide information about former government employees, former ministers, government contractors, tribal allies and their foreign companies.
Announcing the end of US troop presence in Afghanistan on August 30, Biden said US forces had conducted “the largest air withdrawal operation in US history” in the past 17 days, with more than 120,000 US citizens, Afghan nationals and Afghan allies.
Responding to his critics of the decision, he said that according to all US field commanders, ending the military presence in Afghanistan is the best possible way to protect the lives of US troops and ensure the safe exit of civilians from the country in the coming weeks and months.