FYI, internet in Syria just got turned off

I mean, internet has actually been shut off. They are cut off from the rest of the world. Things might be getting serious - once you cut off people’s internet, they have nothing to do but go outside and make angry mobs.

http://allthingsd.com/20121129/syria-has-disappeared-from-the-internet/

Oh crap! That probably means that the regime is about to do something really really nasty (like wipe out entire cities) and wants as little news to get out as possible.

Or maybe they just want to hinder communication. Fairly standard war tactics.

No TV - fine

No water - fine

No power - fine

No Internet - OMFG, it’s serious!!!

Does this only happen in crappy Middle Eastern countries? Serious question. I’ve never heard of the internet being turned off anywhere else.

For example, could the internet be turned off in the US?

Obama has the power to turn off the internet. This was approved like 1 or 2 years ago. I believe it can only happen during national emergency though - like cyber attack. However, if the government and military decided to overrule the law, they could theoretically march soldiers into every ISP company and just force them to turn off.

In Syria, it’s most likely a combination of these. Telecommunications are usually controlled or highly influenced by the government. So, I imagine it would be pretty easy to just shut everything down (as they have). Also, autocratic regimes like this are unlikely to support freedom of internet, or whatever that is called. So, in other words, fuck everything - they do what they want.

The government would have to take control (or really strong arm) all the the ISPs. I’m guessing Syria probably only has a handful of ISPs where as the US has dozens, maybe hundreds. Getting them all to shut off would be difficult.

Well they can shut off the servers hosting all the websites. Its not really a plug in the wall, but if all the major server owners decided to turn them off then I think its possible. Technically, ones all the websites go down, it can mean the internet is ‘turned off’. But to truly have a complete internet blackout, you will need to shut off the enter US power grid and somehow destroy all the back up generators.

This is easier to do in small middle eastern countries because for them it is literally a plug in the wall. They don’t have multiple servers and even if they do, they are all controlled by the government.

Having said that, you can just go as close to the border as possible and connect to a wifi network from Turkey

Yeah, seems like it would be pretty easy to kill 95% of all activity by going after Comcast, AOL, Google, and other big companies. However, some guy in his garage could always hook his computer up to a modem and and let people dial in… so “the internet” would still be running.

Syria probably monitors and controls all communication lines in and out of the country. So, if they cut those lines, internet can’t come in.

People still use AOL?

Really, the only hope that Syria has is full blown genocide. That can’t happen if there is internet and news reporting on it. Think of countries like Rwanda, which suddenly did much better after one side won through ethnic cleansing or even better the British Empire which practiced it successfully for centuries. It might not be politically correct to admit it, but ethnic cleansing has been, and always will be, the best resolution savage man has to their problems. I consider this a bullish indicator.

Well atleast now theres no chance of the Syrian media taking the Onion too seriously like Chinese did…

While I see your point, in Syria, it’s not a clash between ethnic groups, but really a socialist dictator ruling over a distinct ethnic majority, this is more like Saddam’s Iraq rather than Rwanda. So I don’t think a full on ethnic cleansing is likely, but pockets of mass killings like Chechnya or Sri Lanka are possible I suppose.

China did this about 24-48 hours before the Tienanmen Square massacre. This was before the internet, of course, but it was basically a blackout of all news and communication methods they could get their hands on.

Authoritarian countries tend to have a limited number of entry points to their network, precisely so that they can turn it on or off at will, and install censoring filters. Some people might have satellite phones and can get access that way, but those probably have to be registered, and there may be ways of jamming those as well.

It is likely that a smaller country like Syria has only one node connecting domestic ISPs to the rest of the world, and it is possible that an accident or an attack (by either side) on that node has just taken it out of commission. However, it seems just as likely that the regime is preparing for some Tienanmen Square type of thing and don’t want the rest of the world to see it until it is all over (presumably they don’t want the world to see it even then, but it may just be a fait-accomplit by then).

Egypt also cut off internet in January 2011, right as protests were peaking. About a week later, Mubarak announced that he would not run for reelection. Of course, the difference between Syria and Egypt is that Eqypt had civilian protests, which were set up through internet. Syria is at war with a pretty organized rebel opposition. So, I am inclined to agree that Syria’s government is at the beginning of a significant military offensive, i.e. they are not just trying to turn off Twitter. Possibly, they will go into cities to weed out “extremists”, meaning there will be civilian casualties.

Also a bit disturbing that no other news has been reported since this morning… There should be updates either way. The US government knew about Rwanda genocide but kept it quiet. This was the “greatest regret” of Clinton’s international policy.

the men are giong to be pissed off they don’t have no pornography…its outrageous…

Where will they get cat pictures?

What are the chances of Nato action in Syria? I think many reasons favor such action:

-Syria is a state friendly to Russia. Diminishes Russian influence

-Friendly to Iran. Diminishes Iranian influence.

  • Likely a thorn for Turkey which will want to spread its neo-Ottoman designs.

  • A clear threat to Israel…although it’s not obvious that a democratic Syria will be better.

wait, no pornhub?

or youporn