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Syria To Syrians: No Internet For You

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Reports are coming in that the Syrian government has shut down most (or at least large portions) of the internet after suffering months of protests from citizens.

Starting at 3:35 UTC today (6:35am local time), approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet. Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table.

This image shows the current state (green: reachable, red: unreachable) of each network prefix in the Middle East this morning, visualized as a packed Hilbert-curve representation. (Renesys Blog)

Apparently the Syrian regime hasn’t learned from the (now obsolete) dictatorship of Egypt, whose former leader tried a similar stunt only to end up hastening his own demise.

Syrians still might be able to access the digital web via the phone lines (which will be extremely slow), although those lucky enough to afford satellite phones might be able to keep the world updated through various tweets.

Note: If anyone has any ideas on how those outside Syria can help feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

China imposes news blackout in Tibet

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tibet censorshipThe ongoing riot in Tibet displays China’s Internet censorship prowess at its finest. Other countries pay attention and jot down notes. It turned out blocking YouTube and Google News is just an initial salvo.

BusinessWeek reports the Chinese government has banned journalists and tourist from entering Tibet to control the flow of information. To make matters really worse, there is a stricter measure implemented over the Internet.

All comments in different blog-hosting companies are filtered to be consistent with the news release from state-controlled media companies including China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency.

Even popular search engines like Baidu, Yahoo! China and MSN China are playing safe to avoid suffering the same fate as Google News. These leading sites only add news coming from state-owned media companies.

It goes to show how China is obsessively compulsive when it comes to suppressing freedom of speech and flow of information. However, it should not underestimate the power of the frustrated online mob for it has the power bypass all these controls.

China blocks YouTube and Google News access

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free-tibet.gifChina is doing what it does best in times of crisis – block Internet access to control the flow of information. News and blogs report China has blocked Google News and YouTube to curb the distribution of video footages covering the violence happening in Tibet these days.

This trick is patterned after Myanmar’s signature move of cutting off Internet access to control information gathered during the last protest against military activities staged by Burmese monks.

Several videos were uploaded at YouTube showing peaceful demonstrations and marching. But there is also a restricted video showing the actual riots and injured bodies during the demonstration in Tibet. Even though this brutal clip is restricted to 18 years old and above, it is the most viewed video with more than 80,000 hits to date.

Will Iran shut down Internet on its election day?

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internet-ban.gifNothing is more annoying than shutting down Internet service. And when it comes to this subject, China and some countries in the Middle East are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Now, NYT reports that the Iranian government plans to block Internet access during its Election Day on March 14, 2008. Though Iran is notorious for its Internet censorship, this is the biggest move it will ever take to curb the flow of online information.

However, the real reason is quite vague since the information from 2 Iranian news outlets that covered this matter is not consistent.

Daily newspaper Etemad Melli claims this will “depend on security plans and on the Ministry of Telecommunications” while ISN news agency has reported this move guarantees unhampered Internet service for the government.

As always, the biggest losers are the ordinary citizens who rely heavily on the Internet to gather information about politics and other matters.

Online games China’s next target

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counter-strike.gifA few weeks after China announced its plan to loosen up its control over the Internet, it’s now back to its original mindset.

According to a news article, it has launched “Operation For Tomorrow,” a crackdown aimed against “unhealthy” and “overly violent” online games that corrupt the juvenile minds.

Hoping control juvenile crimes and other illegal activities, Chinese authorities will raid Internet cafes and computer markets as well as censor Websites providing unregistered downloadable playing platforms or services.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the primary targets of Tomorrow are the out-of-school youths, runaways and children of prisoners.

Authorities believe that some unlicensed Internet cafes or “black Web bars” are responsible for promoting juvenile crimes and Internet addiction because many Chinese children will do anything just to get money to play these games.