According to multiple Internet monitoring services, Syrian authorities have cut off access to the Internet. The news comes as an uprising has shaken the country for months, with an opposition trying to get together to face president and dictator Bashar al Assad. In the capital city Damascus, mobile services and land lines are affected as well.
On November 13, France was the first country to consider the Syrian opposition as the only true representative of the people. The U.S. followed shortly but only partially.
Yet, it was the sign that the uprising has been waiting for. French authorities had been asking indirectly that the opposition body had to represent the vast majority of the population before taking any further steps. That’s why free army fighters were careful to pick reasonable representatives from different backgrounds and religions.
What is very particular in Syria’s case is that opposition parties are all rooting against Assad, even though they disagree on many grounds. Assad has lost of control in northern and eastern regions as well. Taking down communication networks will hinder progress.
There is another, even darker possible scenario. As journalists are mostly reporting from other countries, Syrian authorities could use the black-out window to conduct a massive attack on activists, relatively safe from the relentless all-seeing eye that is the Internet.
2 US-based Internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off Internet nationwide
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The Associated Press (@AP) November 29, 2012(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
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