Syria Internet Disrupted As Egypt Blackout Catches On In Middle East: Reports

On the same day that Egypt has suspended online activity, Syria has also blocked internet service, according to reports.

Syria is known for a tight control of the internet, which was tightened further after the unrest in Tunisia, reports Reuters. Now, Al Arabiya is reporting that internet services have gone down completely in the country. Previously, Syria had blocked programs that "allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones," according to Reuters.

Egypt's online services have reportedly been down since last night as the country's deadly protests continued into what was planned as the largest day so far.

Facebook has reportedly been blocked in Egypt for days, before which it was being used as a key tool for organizers. It was also used by the successful revolutionaries in Tunisia, raising concerns among other nations that it posed a threat.

UPDATE (10:32EST) Al Arabiya is reporting that a Syrian official has denied the internet service is down.

UPDATE: Reports are emerging that the Internet is not down in Syria, although the previous service disruptions are in place.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Click here for the latest developments in Egypt.

Comments

[wajdan gul]

04:32 AM on 01/31/2011

i think people still can access twitter, facebook, youtube and other social networking sites by accessing several vpn services from websites like www.bestvpnservice.com and others. so y should twitter/facebook/youtube or anyother site worry about these bans ?

[messy]

05:54 PM on 01/29/2011

Dr. Bashir is peeing in his pants.

[Ylmaz Kaba]

05:28 PM on 01/29/2011

STE (Syrian telecommun ication Establishm ent) is using a new filtering system.
http://sxeyuklee.wordpress.com/

[cornel]

03:35 PM on 01/29/2011

Syrian internet is not down

http://bocme.net/

[facemark]

08:17 AM on 01/29/2011

These reports are completely untrue. NO outages of internet or mobile phone networks of any kind in Syria.

[shadyzaher]

02:55 AM on 01/29/2011

I'm not in favor of defending any regime , but internet in Syria didn't go down yesterday.
all the internet users were online.
facebook , youtube and blogspot have been blocked for 4 years. but Syrian users access them through proxies. it's been noticed that it's getting harder to access sites through proxies because it appears that the STE (Syrian telecommun­ication Establishm­ent) is using a new filtering system.
so once again internet was not down yesterday in Syria .. apparently Alarabia isn't a reliable news source .

[shadyzaher]

02:54 AM on 01/29/2011

I'm in favor of defending any regime , but internet in Syria didn't go down yesterday.
all the internet users were online.
facebook , youtube and blogspot have been blocked for 4 years. but Syrian users access them through proxies. it's been noticed that it's getting harder to access sites through proxies because it appears that the STE (Syrian telecommunication Establishment) is using a new filtering system.
so once again internet was not down yesterday in Syria .. apparently Alarabia isn't a reliable news source .

[shadyzaher]

02:57 AM on 01/29/2011

*not in favor
damn typos.

[cornel]

03:37 PM on 01/29/2011

Al Arabia is owned by Saudi MBC and US funded !

[Joseph Aoun]

07:41 PM on 01/28/2011

We need a lasting peace in the Middle East.
We need a great American leader, a great Arab leader, and a great Jewish leader (Israeli) to bring a lasting peace to the British Mandate of Palestine
The Palestinians and the Israelis and the Jordanians will lose.
Palestinians lose their claim to have as their country the whole of the mandated area of Palestine, but they do finally get a country of their own.
Israelis lose full control of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (it will be jointly controlled by Israel and Palestine) but attain what they want most of all: a Jewish state living in peace with its neighbors.
Jordanians nominally lose the country in which they are already a minority, but they would become citizens of a stronger, more stable country.

[Sasa Milosevic]

07:06 PM on 01/28/2011

So logical chain reaction. But there is one thing that no one on Middle East ask: who are people who will continue to lead nations after debacle of old regimes. Do you see what s happening in Tunisia? There is no more Ben Ali's dictature but protestors are still active. I am absolutely for democracy, but people must be ready for new democratic day that not so rare could be new nightmare. Corruption will not disappear over the night. New rulers with their democratic servants will have the own law and very often they are political students of old rulers. They have only changed political vocabular and clothes.

[jabailo]

06:52 PM on 01/28/2011

...whole countries that are held hostage because of the vanity of single "leader"...insane...

[LPK]

05:16 PM on 01/28/2011

Mubarak is a great guy. He even tortures people for us.

[jasev01]

03:52 PM on 01/28/2011

Like Puffy.

[The-Brave-Hero]

02:49 PM on 01/28/2011

Some awesome news:

Aljazeera reported that youth protesters decided to form a security circle around the national museum to protect it from being looted.

This proves the high levels of civility those youths protesting carry and that they were not behind violent attacks that took place earlier including looting shops, setting fires etc...

[jasev01]

03:49 PM on 01/28/2011

this proves they didn't want there stuff taken smuggled out onto the black market lost for 60 years in a banker's private collection to reappear with questionable providence at Sotheby's in 2100 and there grandkids have to bid to get it back.

[messy]

05:58 PM on 01/29/2011

The patromony of Egypt is something that most Egyptians are proud of. The Army has actually been defending the museums from looters, and letting the real protesters alone.

[Dennis Yuen]

12:13 PM on 01/28/2011

On a side note: this is perhaps something young Mr. Zuckerberg can be very proud of, people using Facebook to raise a revolution

[Al Halaby]

11:46 AM on 01/28/2011

Vice president Joe Biden once again put his foot in his mouth declaring last night in interview with PBS ( Hosni Mobark is not a dictator !! typically I will cut the VP some slack for he has the tendency to say the dumbest things. this statement arguably is one of the dumbest statement he ever made. Biden often bragged about his experience in foreign affairs. he was a permanent fixture on the senate foreign committee and serving at time as the Charmain of that committee.

Mobark is (not a dictator) Joe what plant are you from? Mr Vice President do America huge favor just shut the (F) up. you are acting so stupid, please stop making a fool of yourself.