Syria Blocks Internet Access Amid Unrest

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS

Syria shut down most of its Internet and mobile data connections early Friday, adopting a strategy used by other governments in the Middle East during critical points of the uprisings.

But the attempt to gain an advantage over the opposition groups by unplugging or partially blocking the Internet, which has played a key role in the protests, could backfire. In some cases, most notably in Egypt, the move appeared to prompt more angry protesters into the streets.

"You are reaching a point of no return when you do this kind of stuff," said Earl Zmijewski, a vice president at Renesys Corp., an Internet research firm in Manchester, N.H. tracking the developments.

At 6:35 am Syria time on Friday, about two-thirds of all Syrian networks were cut off from the global Internet, according to Renesys, which studies global Internet traffic flows. This occurred over roughly a half-hour, it said.

The networks that were blocked, including high-speed data connections for mobile phones, were those used by ordinary citizens.

The networks that serviced government websites, such as the site for the oil ministry and site of the government-owned telecommunications monopoly called the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment were not affected, according to Renesys.

A Syrian government-backed website confirmed Internet service had been shut down.

Blocking access to the Internet has risks both for the economy and for the regime, giving the appearance of desperation, Internet experts say.

Syria "can look at other countries where this was done and see that the Internet is not going away," said Bill Woodcock, director of research of the Packet Clearing House, a San Francisco organization that studies and supports Internet infrastructure globally. "It shows they're responding to the moment rather than thinking strategically, and any government that has devolved to that point is probably on its way out."

Egypt's Internet shutdown, which lasted about five days at the end of January and early February, required a wider effort than Syria's. Egypt had more than 200 international connections between Internet service providers inside and outside the country at the time of its shutdown, compared with just ten in Syria, according to Mr. Woodcock.

"Mubarak took Egypt offline and hurt Egypt's economy tremendously," said Mr. Zmijewski of Renesys, referring to ousted president, Hosni Mubarak. "So you only do this if you don't want images getting out of tanks rolling over people, or whatever is going to happen next there."

A blackout can be accomplished by removing blocks of routing addresses, called Internet protocol addresses, from the system, which has the effect of denying Internet data a way of finding its desired destination in those countries.

Syria's Internet culture has grown significantly in recent years. About 20 of every 100 citizens were online in 2009, the most recent year available, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations coordinating body that also tracks global technology trends. That's a four-fold increase from 2005. While that lags connectivity in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, it's well ahead of Iran, Libya, and Iraq, according to the ITU.

via online.wsj.com