Ai generated TLDR:
The Taliban is distributing free SIM cards to Afghan refugees, likely to collect biometric data for tracking and surveillance purposes. SIM cards are valuable to governments for controlling communication networks and monitoring populations. Despite economic uncertainty, Afghanistan’s telecom industry has reported positive growth, with plans for building new towers. The Taliban’s regressive policies have barred women and girls from working, being educated, or visiting parks, and the value of tracking them is higher for the Taliban than the risk of giving them access to the world’s information. Internet shutdowns and government control over communication networks can cause economic and civilian harm, yet they are becoming increasingly common worldwide.
If you don’t want to communicate with non-Signal users and are always within range of a public or known Wifi network where ever you are in Afghanistan, then I guess this is fine.
Right, so if you’re sending non-encrypted messages, you are indeed still sending non-encrypted messages, which defeats the whole purpose