Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
As conditions in Afghanistan continue to deteriorate and the Taliban gain control of its major cities, it’s been a challenge for its citizens to get accurate information about what’s happening from moment to moment. Rest of World tells the story of Kabul-based startup Ehtesab, which relies on crowdsourced reports from vetted users to track everything from electricity outages to bombings to traffic jams, and feeds the information to its app, which then sends out push notifications.
Ehtesab means “accountability” in Dari and Pashto, and the app, formally launched in March 2020, offers streamlined security-related information, including general security updates in Kabul to its users. With real-time, crowdsourced alerts, users across the…
