Libya suffers Internet outages during Gadhafi uprisings

by Steven Mostyn - Feb 23 2011, 12:20

Leading social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have recently helped fuel the revolution in Egypt, providing its disgruntled people with a powerful platform through which they organised protests against unpopular ruler Hosni Mubarak.

However, such sweeping influence may not be forthcoming for the people of Libya, who are presently holding anti-government demonstrations in the hopes of removing long-serving dictator Muammar al-Gadhafi.

Specifically, CNN reports that Internet connections throughout the North African nation have been hit by widespread blackouts, which could be an attempt by the Libyan government to stamp out the spread of public protests.

Although dumping the blame at Gadhafi’s door may be the knee-jerk reaction for most, it’s worth noting that Internet traffic monitor Renesys has said the outages could also be the result of traffic overload or simple power failures.

That being said, CNN suggests otherwise by citing one of its own journalists on the ground in eastern Libya, who has reported that the electricity grid and cell phone infrastructure remain active although the Net has been offline for several days.

According to service provider analysis offered up by Renesys, international Internet traffic in and out of Libya went down on both Saturday and Sunday morning between the hours of 01:00 and 08:00.

And, adding to that, Renesys boss James Cowie said Libya’s access to the international Internet is controlled by a single company, which is itself governed by the state and could be easily closed at specific times when dissidents are attempting to gather support.  

A Google Transparency Report has since revealed that patchy Internet access has plagued the country throughout the course of this week. 

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