Syria trying to contain internet influence

The internet in Syria has been disrupted in various parts of the country. This appears to be a deliberate attempt by the authorities to curtail its impact on the growing revolt.

Although internet services continued to operate normally after the outbreak of pro-democracy protests in mid-March, this month the service started to see breaks in various places.

"Starting at 3:35 (today), approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global internet," reported internet intelligence firm Renesys on its blog on 3 June.

"Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table." Most mobile phone and internet networks were also reportedly affected by the blackout.

Renesys said the network prefixes that remained reachable included those belonging to the Syrian government, "although many government websites are slow to respond or down".

Meanwhile, the Google Transparency Report, which monitors traffic to its services around the world, showed traffic levels in Syria well below normal.

The shutdown of internet services began on a day which was preceded by calls - including on Facebook - for massive demonstrations across the country in what was to be a 'Friday of Children'.

The Facebook group the Syrian Revolution 2011, which has attracted more than 190,000 followers, called for nationwide protests on 3 June to honour children allegedly killed by security forces, such as 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death. The group emerged as an organising force behind pro-democracy demonstrations.

By cutting off internet services, the authorities have echoed the former Egyptian government's actions during the 25 January revolution - when the entire country was unplugged for more than five days in order to make it difficult for protesters to organise and communicate.

Information shared on web-based social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, has allowed international media outlets, mainly pan-Arab TV stations, to see what is going on inside the country. This was especially important in the light of the fact that only a few foreign journalists, mainly Iranians, have been allowed to operate on Syrian soil.

For example, the Facebook-based Sham News Network has provided a large number of videos, taken by activists on the ground, which were quickly picked up by TV stations, such as Al Jazeera and France 24.

Other active groups involved with user-generated content include Ugarit News, Syrian Free Press and the Coordination of Homs Protests.

The interruption of the internet services was apparently not a one-off incident. Several users have reported difficulty accessing and uploading material since 3 June.

Several complaints were voiced through Twitter. On 9 June, @ZainSyr wrote in English: "True, internet in #Syria is dying, Facebook is completely off or terribly slow."

On the same day, @mrrightsyria wrote in English: "Internet in #Syria seems to be very slow... And speculations that it will be a major internet blackout like last Friday."

In a defiant tone, @ahumanright said in English on 9 June: "Bashar al-Assad can cut off the internet and say all is calm, but he can't stop the flow of information."

"The internet service in Syria is working very slowly. You cannot upload or download any file. Of course, deliberate," wrote another tweeter, @AbuJadBasha, in Arabic, on 11 June.

On 4 June, the US expressed concern at the internet shutdown in Syria. AFP quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying. "We condemn any effort to suppress the Syrian people's exercise of their rights to free expression, assembly, and association."

Criticisms of the internet shutdown have been met with denials by the Syrian government.

On 6 June, the Syrian news website Aks al-Sayir reported that, in an exclusive statement to the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan, Eng. Bakr Bakr, director-general of the General Organization for Communications, said there was a technical failure in the internet portal and work was underway to fix it. He added that the failure was recurrent as it has been "appearing and disappearing" for several weeks.

Muhammad Shukri is Middle East Media Analyst at BBC Monitoring.