Last week, Syria completely disappeared from the Internet, and not for the first time either. Since then, it poked its head back out into cyberspace, but not for long; Google’s Transparency Report is showing that it’s gone again.
What’s going on over there is anyone’s guess. According to Renesys chief technology officer James Cowie, it would look exactly the same whether the internet broke, or whether it was purposefully cut off. He put it this way to the Associated Press:
It’s entirely consistent with a technical fault at a central facility; it’s also completely consistent with a decision to use an internet kill switch.
The Atlantic Wire points out that SANA, the country’s (state-run) news agency says it’s just a glitch and should be sorted out in the next few hours. But ever since that craziness in November of last year, you can never be too sure it’s ever coming back. [The Atlantic Wire]