As a result of its own revolutionary attempts, a conflict-plagued Libya has once again entered radio silence that is now at 12 hours. The country lost connection on February 18 as well, but Internet access was restored. As of Friday, it has again been revoked following what the AFP calls “fierce clashes” between protestors and dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In the last few weeks, YouTube has become an increasingly popular platform for Libyan dissidents. And unfortunately, unlike the situation in Egypt, there may not be a loophole for citizens to bypass the firewall. IT consulting firm Rensys has been following the country’s Internet strife, and told IBTimes that the situation is “like a post-apocalyptic scenario where the roads are there, there just isn’t any traffic.”
The Egyptian Internet shutdown was extremely unsophisticated in comparison. It largely was thanks to government threats over ISPs to block their services. Rensys explains that in Libya’s case, information being sent to its routers is simply being sent into a virtual “black hole.” Rensys has described this the cut off as a new way of obstructing Internet connection, and this could possibly reignite panic over an Internet kill switch.
You can see the Internet drop off courtesy of Google’s transparency report.
