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Libya Blocks Internet Access As Citizens Protest

Posted by timothy on from the welcome-to-libya dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As protests rage across the Middle East, in particular gaining strength in Libya, Djibouti, Iraq, Bahrain, and Yemen over the past two days, Libya has taken the lead role in blocking internet access to its citizens. Residents of Tripoli, Libya are reporting wide-spread internet blockage for most sites, and access to circumvention tools like OperaTor and VPN is also being blocked."

9 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Great idea! Quite original! by intellitech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It worked so well in Egypt, why not do it in Libya, too.

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
    1. Re:Great idea! Quite original! by Troll-Under-D'Bridge · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If the news reports are any accurate, the main reason for the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt is economic. Libya is a wealthier if not economically more equal country than either. So maybe the scale of discontent is lower in Libya, and killing the Internet just "might" be the straw that will break the back of the protests.

      But if this move fails and there's another regime change (for better or worse), then the leaders of a certain economic superpower should be worried. On the other hand, that country may have just the antivirus for popular discontent: high growth rates and a more or less regular change of faces at the top, where the Great Leader isn't Papa's favorite but selected by an inner circle in what works out as a form of extremely hierarchical representative democracy.

    2. Re:Great idea! Quite original! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      To add to that:

      Each one of these places has state control(direct like socialism or indirect like fascism) over food production and allocation. Each also has very poor output and imports food. Each also selects favorites to get the most food based on political pull usually giving certain districts more or less based on their political backing. Food becomes bribes for votes, essentially.

      In egypt, food subsidies provide food for a large portion of the population. In fact egypt is the largest wheat importer of the world. When the crop failures hit, egypt was caught off guard. When the governments of india and russia prevented their agriculture industry from selling wheat outside of their countries, it was stunned. When inflation of currencies drove commodity rates up 30% in just 6 months of 2010, egypt was devastated.

      Add to that the fact that these countries subsidizes education costs, which creates massive unemployment for the increased number of graduates. Tunisia particularly had a 45% unemployment rate for graduates, when the national average was only 15%. 57% of new workers entering the market to find jobs are college educated so we are talking about 25% of all new workers not finding jobs. This idle and restless youth is the most inclined to fight against the current power structure. With no reliance upon it for handouts(after graduating, I mean) and nothing to lose besides their despairing or even hopeless lives, they are a volatile group.

      Some links for lots of sources:
      http://mises.org/daily/5045/The-Education-Bubble-Is-Fuel-for-Revolt
      http://www.buzzle.com/articles/egypt-protests2011.html
      http://www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights/blog/gender-barriers-break-in-egyptian-protests/
      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28alexandria.html
      http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-31-how-food-prices-can-fuel-revolutions-like-egypts/
      http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2011/01/spike_in_global_food_prices_tr.html
      http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/
      http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/agr_cou_818.pdf
      http://mises.org/daily/5050/QE2-Fuels-a-Global-Fury

      Each of these links is worth reading, and provide even more evidence than I mentioned above.

    3. Re:Great idea! Quite original! by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Libya is a wealthier if not economically more equal country than either."

      Not entirely accurate. The GOVERNMENT of Libya is wealthy. US diplomatic cables paint an entirely different picture then that you describe.

      The locals...
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/07/08TRIPOLI530.html
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/11/08TRIPOLI889.html
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/01/09TRIPOLI22.html

      The shit the locals have to put up with...
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/08/08TRIPOLI635.html

      The leaders the locals have to put up with (not to be confused with the shit)...
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2010/02/10TRIPOLI95.html
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/07/08TRIPOLI592.html

      With only more of the same shit to look forward to...
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/12/08TRIPOLI936.html

      All it really takes to get Libyan panties in a bunch...
      http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09TRIPOLI961.html

      So, in reality, things aren't really any different there then they are in other countries we see in full-swing upheaval--we just haven't heard about it in the media...yet.

  2. Libya blocks access to Facebook, Al Jazeera by Krystalo · · Score: 3, Informative

    This article has some more information: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/libya-blocks-access-to-facebook-al-jazeera-others/302 It doesn't look like the whole Internet is blocked, yet.

  3. Re:SOP For Governments. by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Give it a rest already. There will NEVER be an internet shutdown in the US in response to a protest. You know why? Because our leaders are a fuckton smarter than the tinpot dictators in the Middle East, and are smart enough to know that the best way to prevent revolt is to provide the people with bread and circuses. Shutting down the internet would snap the masses out of their stupor.

    Instead, they'll do what they did for the Iraq War protests. Paint the protesters as lazy slackers with nothing better to do, and ignore them.

  4. This happened in Egypt by floydman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    and it did NOT work!
    I was one of the ppl, who actually joined the revolution due to the fact that I did not have an internet connection.
    So i went to Tahrir square. To my surprise, i found thousands like myself, who found themselves there because they could not
    get their updates online, so decided to go see whats going on, and then latter on got involved. It even got worse when the gov. cut of news channles like Jazeera.
    What i am noticing is extreme insanity, because you would think that there is some kind of analyst or adviser who saw that happen in Egypt and decided it was a bad idea, but nooooo..they are just too smart for that. Its the same school of thought i guess.

    --
    The lunatic is in my head
  5. I accidentally the whole internet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is that bad?

  6. Protestor sympathetizers in the govn't by Palpatine_li · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. advise the leader to cut off Internet 2. youngling without porn goes to street 3. ??? 4. Profit!