According to a tweet from the ministry's spokesperson Anayatullah Alokozay and a report by the London-based independent Afghanistan International TV station, Afghanistan's Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology shut down the websites of Hasht-e Subh Daily and Zawia News on Monday, October 3, due to 'false propaganda' against the Taliban.

In separate statements, the Hasht-e Subh daily and Zawia News sites, which are run by Afghan journalists who have been reporting from exile since the August 2021 Taliban takeover, said the Taliban had deactivated their website domain names.

Since then, Hasht-e Subh Daily has resumed its online presence under a new domain. According to Zawia News, it will keep publishing news on the website of Zawia Media, its parent firm.