United Nations Report Declares Internet Access a Human Right

By Nicole Henderson, June 06, 2011

A screenshot of the cover page of the report

(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The United Nations (http://www.un.org/) has declared cutting off access to the Internet a human rights violation, according to a report by Wired.

The report released Friday by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection to Freedom of Opinion and Expression came just as Syria's Internet was disconnected.

According to a report by the Associated Press, authorities have cut off Internet access before in areas of military operations but Friday's outage was more widespread.

US security firm Renesys said that two-thirds of all Syrian networks were unavailable.

These outages recall the earlier Egypt Internet outages in January where more than 88 percent of ISPs were cut off.

Cutting off Internet access is a tactic used by governments to stifle protests and control political unrest, since many protests are organized through sites like Facebook.

"The Special Rapporteur calls upon all states to ensure that Internet access is maintained at all times, including during times of political unrest," the report said. "In particular, the Special Rapporteur urges States to repeal or amend existing intellectual copyright laws which permit users to be disconnected from Internet access, and to refrain from adopting such laws."

With the Internet shut off, activists have had to turn to satellite connections to blog or post videos. This outage also enforces the Syrian government's wish to restrict media coverage and expulsion of foreign media, making it difficult to confirm what is happening in the country.

The UN report also condemned laws in France and the UK which look to cut off Internet access of copyright infringers.

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Syria’s Internet Back Up Following Blackout

June 6th, 2011 By: THN News

(The Hosting News) – Renesys, an internet connectivity monitoring company reported on Saturday that access to Syria’s internet has been restored.

The country’s internet had gone down on Friday amid various anti-government protests throughout the country.

During the initial internet blackout, Renesys had reported that “approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet. Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table.”

Upon detecting that the country’s internet was back up, the company stated, “With connectivity restored, the Google Transparency Report confirms that traffic has resumed, at levels that look provisionally similar to those before the blackout. Will Friday Internet blackouts become a regular feature of the Syrian protests?”

The reasons for the internet blackout remain unclear, but sounds similar to when Egypt’s government shut down their country’s internet access under similar circumstances earlier this year.

For the entire report by Renesys, visit: http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/06/syrian-internet-shutdown.shtml#latest

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