Airports and banks were forced to shut down. Government employees idled aimlessly in the corridors of their ministries. Teenage girls, barred from attending school, lost much of their access to the outside world.

In shutting down the internet and cellphone services across Afghanistan last month, the Taliban government turned the clock back decades, in a move reminiscent of their first time in power from 1996 to 2001. Connectivity came back after two days, but this week, the Afghan government blocked certain types of content on social media apps like Instagram and Facebook, signaling that it would only tolerate tightly controlled access to the internet.

Over the four years since they returned to power, the Taliban have gradually strengthened their grip on Afghan society, at times prohibiting content creators from posting on YouTube in one province, or forbidding television channels from broadcasting images of living beings in another. But the internet blackout and the suspension of cellphone services hit the entire country at the same time last month, leaving many Afghans worried that it could go on indefinitely, or happen again even after service was restored.

“We are always at home, so the internet was our only way to tell other people that we are alive,” said Mahsa, 19, who was in the middle of a math lesson with a U.S.-sponsored online education program when the blackout began. (The New York Times agreed to identify her by only her first name because she feared backlash by the government.)

Because the Taliban have banned education for girls after sixth grade, online education has been the only avenue for female students like Mahsa to pursue their studies.

Afghan officials have not communicated publicly about the shutdown, and spokesmen from multiple government agencies have not responded to requests for comment. But officials outside the country and analysts have said the internet shutdown was the result of an order by Afghanistan’s leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has sought to restrict internet access to prevent “immoral acts.”