Libya Internet Shut Down Amid Protests, Later Restored (UPDATE)

Reports emerged late Friday that Libya appears to have shut down its Internet due to widespread protests, less than a month after Egypt did the same.

The Los Angeles Times was among the first news outlets to report Libya's Internet outage, citing "multiple reports." TechCrunch also posted about Libya's Internet issues.

UPDATE: Internet authority Renesys reported Saturday afternoon that Libya's Internet has been restored after an approximately 7-hour outage.

EARLIER:

Libya first began shutting off social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and the news website of Al Jazeera before taking down entire Internet providers. Renesys confirmed late Friday "Libya is off the Internet."

When Egypt's Internet went down the morning of Jan. 28, Renesys called it an unprecedented move at the time in the history of the Internet.

"We wondered whether anyone would repeat Egypt's strategy. Tonight, it appears that we have our answer," Internet authority Renesys wrote in a blog post on Libya's Internet outage.

Here's more from Renesys:

Renesys confirms that the 13 globally routed Libyan network prefixes were withdrawn at 23:18 GMT (Friday night, just after midnight Saturday local time), and Libya is off the Internet.

Comments

[jabailo]

03:36 PM on 02/20/2011

I hold this Right to inalienable...the Right to free and unfettered discourse on the Internet.

[Rudy Aunk]

05:18 AM on 02/20/2011

Hetep and Respect, shutting down the internet ended Egypt's government. Libya, would be wise not to touch this third rail.

[Sharon Norris]

09:54 PM on 02/19/2011

The eternal tendency of authority to blame the messenger and try to restrict the information subordinates receive is exactly why our founders specifically included freedom of the press among the bill of rights.

[michael098762001]

04:15 PM on 02/19/2011

Internet Restored in Libya, Google Maps Shows Up-To-Date Info , 4 hours ago by Charlie White , http://mashable.com/2011/02/19/internet-libya/

There are many youtube videos from Libya now being posted as well. This Egyptian pg. has many, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Face-Egypt-%D8%AC%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A9-%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9/197724176905097

[TricksR4Kids]

12:59 PM on 02/19/2011

US won't do a thing. They like dictators who control people. It's the tea bag way.

[jteamaz]

09:53 AM on 02/19/2011

Don't think for a second that this couldn't happen here people, seriously. It's coming....

[Talab]

03:59 PM on 02/19/2011

I agree , to everyone of you that think it couldnt happen here, read this for eyeopeners
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/02/12/egyptian-intifada-did-israel-have-a-hand-in-egypts-internet-blackout/

[breezyholler]

04:39 PM on 02/19/2011

REVOLUTION......there's an app for that !!

[jo smith456]

09:43 AM on 02/19/2011

And Obama (or the CIA, FBI, etc.) is thinking of Internet-switch? FBI wants more power to snoop, monitor, and control what we read and what we talked about in the Internet?

OMG! What's happening in this world?

[messy]

09:54 AM on 02/19/2011

The internet is an invention of the US military.

[eric14]

03:04 PM on 02/19/2011

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001016.htm

Who invented the Internet?
A single person did not create the Internet that we know and use today.

The initial idea is credited as being Leonard Kleinrock's after he published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961.

In 1962 J.C.R. Licklider becomes the first Director of IPTO and gave his vision of a galactic network. In addition to the ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network, which later became ARPANET.

The Internet as we know it today first started being developed in the late 1960's.

In the summer of 1968, the Network Working Group (NWG) held its first meeting chaired by Elmer Shapiro with the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) with attendees: Steve Carr, Steve Crocker, Jeff Rulifson, and Ron Stoughton. In the meeting the group discussed solving issues related to getting hosts to communicate with each other.

In December 1968, Elmer Shapiro with SRI released a report "A Study of Computer Network Design Parameters." Based on this work and earlier work done by Paul Baran, Thomas Marill and others; Lawrence Roberts and Barry Wessler helped to create the final version of the Interface Message Processor (IMP) specifications. Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) was later awarded the contract to design and build the IMP sub network.

[Planet Caravan]

09:33 AM on 02/19/2011

Not that it was ever safe to vacation in the Arab world but I think I'll be sticking to the Caribbean this year :-)

[messy]

09:55 AM on 02/19/2011

Sure it was. I know a lot of people who've done it (and have done it myself). Now is not exactly the time for one, however.

[artist-53]

09:16 AM on 02/19/2011

I think it's time we get a wealthy individual or group with a conscience to launch a pro-democracy satellite for global human rights and independence.

Which will enable pro democracy people around the world to communicate and get their message out despite what the ruling dictators do with the internet.

Warren Buffet
Steve Jobs
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
George Clooney

and many more. Pool your cash and allow pro democratic people the world over to communicate and get their message out. Send a link of freedom into space that will work independent of typical communications satellites

No shut off switch.

Come on , how difficult could it be to circumvent the tele-communications corps that allow for ruling dictators to shut people out from the rest of the world at the most crucial time

Why are we so dependent upon others to communicate?

So get thinking wealthy fair minded people of the world....do something.

[ed anderson]

09:22 AM on 02/19/2011

I like this, endorse this, think it's a great idea...!

[few77]

09:24 AM on 02/19/2011

Fanned!

[Migo00o]

09:15 AM on 02/19/2011

Arab Gone Wild.

[imtheman]

09:09 AM on 02/19/2011

It was just a matter of time before the people in the Middle East grew frustrated with what they were facing from those in power.

[keep it solid]

08:38 AM on 02/19/2011

40 years in power wow. He could've taught roman emperors a thing or two

[Planet Caravan]

08:52 AM on 02/19/2011

He would have been conquered by them

[keep it solid]

08:58 AM on 02/19/2011

maybe , but I have the impression that qad-daffi in the local dialect means daffy duck.
How would wage war aginst a cartoon? :)

[Musculus]

08:32 AM on 02/19/2011

I' ve got updates from Libya: http://muscvlvs.blogspot.com/2011/02/friend-in-tripoli-reports.html
A person in Tripoli reports what is happening

[Emmayonas]

04:50 PM on 02/19/2011

Liked "HOPEless. Yes We gun"

[Planet Caravan]

08:28 AM on 02/19/2011

Ghadaffy has an internet off switch in his tent

[Planet Caravan]

08:26 AM on 02/19/2011

Ghadaffy is just misunderstood. He had a difficult childhood

[belladio]

08:28 AM on 02/19/2011

You perplex me, Planet Caravan. Sometimes you make sense, other times you don't. Which is it today?

[Planet Caravan]

08:31 AM on 02/19/2011

The day before yesterday but after today

[messy]

09:56 AM on 02/19/2011

Yeah, I've seen his volkswagen.