Syria Cut Off From The Internet Again

from the because-that-works-so-well dept

Thu, Nov 29th 2012 3:02pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier this summer, we wrote about Syria briefly deleting itself from the internet. We wondered about the logic behind this, seeing as other countries who attempted this -- namely, Egypt and Libya -- had regime change follow quite closely after such a decision. Furthermore, not too long ago, reports were that the Syrian government was trying to use the internet to get its own story out. Of course, a lot has happened in Syria in the interim. So perhaps views have changed.

Reports came out quickly today that the Syrian internet went almost entirely offline. Renesys, who reported this first, also provides some striking graphics on the situation:

I can't imagine this strategy will be particularly successful.

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Filed Under: internet, syria

9 Comments

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jameshogg (profile), 29 Nov 2012 @ 3:22pm

Ba'athist ideology is rooted in fascism after all. And it "means war", as the old, hard Left used to say...

Now the Left lets proximity politics come into play, and insist that the U.S. government is the worst in the world despite never spending even a day under a totalitarian state of affairs abroad.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Nov 2012 @ 3:37pm

Still so relevant:
http://uberhumor.com/the-internet-was-acting-weird
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Alana (profile), 29 Nov 2012 @ 6:31pm

For anyone who wants to treat this as "oh no they can't access porn!", the internet is the fastest method of communication, and this was probably a deliberate action by the government. This isn't a laughing matter.

/preemptive
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Alana (profile), 29 Nov 2012 @ 6:35pm

Re:
I would mention that the thing that bought me to say this preemptivley was the reddit thread. But I think this site is above that kinda thing, and some of Reddit's users are kinda... yeah... so... Yeah.
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Jake, 29 Nov 2012 @ 6:53pm

According to BBC Radio 4, there's a rumour that it wasn't a government blackout but a result of some vital piece of infrastructure getting blown up.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2012 @ 5:05am

Re:
wth are you talking about?
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Brave Sir Robin, 30 Nov 2012 @ 5:50am

So, basically
...you just assume that this was deliberate, and that it was done by the government, and that the reason they did it was censorship.

Uh-huh, yup, I see how this is good journalism.
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R Andrew Ohge (profile), 30 Nov 2012 @ 8:04am

Rehearsal for bigger things?
Syria gets shut down. The average American? Doesn't hear about it, or if they did, is clueless as to the implications.

What implications?

It's all a matter of scale, now. It COULD happen ANYWHERE.
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Q�r Tharkasd�ttir, 30 Nov 2012 @ 1:35pm

> some vital piece of infrastructure getting blown up

Considering that big battles have been taking place around Damascus airport, which have led to its closure and incoming flights being rerouted, it wouldn't be surprising. And considering the innumerable acts of terror and atrocities committed by the fanatics financed by the US, France, Britain, Turkey and the GCC, it wouldn't be surprising if they had managed to close down the net. As they have done with satellite comm when they destroyed Libya, or as they're doing right now under our eyes with Iran. Why is it that some people automatically believe it's the government that done it?
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