KABUL: The Taliban ordered a ban against video-sharing app TikTok and the survival-shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) game on Thursday, insisting they were leading Afghanistan’s youth astray.

The phone apps are popular among Afghans, who have been left with few outlets for entertainment since the hardline Islamists returned to power last year and banned music, movies and television soaps.

The apps “made the young generation go astray”, the cabinet said in a statement, adding the telecommunications ministry had been ordered to shut them down.

It also directed the ministry to stop TV channels from showing “immoral material”, although little is being broadcast beyond news and religious content.