Afghanistan’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology Shahzad Aryubi on Saturday warned that the ministry will ban Facebook in Afghanistan if it does not follow the newly-established policy of the institution.

Aryubi said the policy is aimed at preventing “misuse” of Facebook by a number of users in Afghanistan.

“We give Facebook six months to follow our policy in its services in Afghanistan, otherwise Facebook will be banned in Afghanistan,” Aryubi said, however, he did not elaborate more about the details of the policy.  

He said 20 problems have been recognized in terms of telecom services in the country and that he will urge President Ashraf Ghani to merge Afghanistan’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (ATRA) with his ministry if it cannot resolve the problems.   

Kabul residents reacted to the ministry’s move differently. Some said it might be good for making the services better, while some others said it means censoring Facebook and users’ activities.

“If problems decrease in this regard, it will be good. But if the government censors the problems that people share on Facebook, it will not be a good move,” said Wahidullah, a Kabul resident. 

In Afghanistan, most of the smartphone users have Facebook accounts and currently millions of people use Facebook services.