Iraq ‘Orders Internet Shutdown In Five Provinces’

Iraq‘s Ministry of Communications has reportedly ordered a shutdown of the Internet in five of the country’s provinces, in addition to blocks on Internet-based social media and communications services, as the country’s government faces an insurgency that has captured wide areas of territory around Baghdad.

The ministry ordered a “complete Internet shutdown” in the provinces of Niniveh, Anbar, Saleh El Din, Kirkuk and Diyalah, according to a letter dated Sunday, and leaked online.

Social media block

The letter, addressed to ISPs, orders a block of all access to virtual private networks (VPNs) across the country from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. on a daily basis and reiterates a Friday order to block online communications and social media services including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Viber, Skype, Tango, Wechat, Instagram and didi.

Mohammed Najem, advocacy director of the Lebanon-based activist group Social Media Exchange (SMEX), published a translation of the document and compared the shutdown to measures instituted in Egypt in 2011.

“The government has decided that the best solution… is to do what Mubarak did three and half years ago in Egypt, kill the Internet,” Najem said in a statement.

‘Disturbing’ reports

Iraqi users have reported that access to social media sites has been blocked since Friday, after insurgents used Twitter to spread propaganda messages and images. The militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has also used its website to post images of massacres.

Psiphon, which provides technology allowing Internet blocks to be circumvented, said it has seen the number of Iraqi users skyrocket, reaching 550,000 on Sunday, compared to a typical daily usage of 8,000 from the country.

Facebook and Twitter said they had received reports from users indicating that access to their services has been blocked.

“We’re investigating their reports and we hope service will be restored quickly,” Twitter said in a tweet.

Facebook said in a statement it was “disturbed” by such reports, and is investigating.

Traffic decline

Industry observers said it would be difficult to make a complete cutoff of Internet access effective, given the large numbers of ISPs operating in the country, some of which use satellite connections.

Internet monitoring firms such as Akamai have reported lower traffic than usual from Iraq, but Akamai said this appears to be due to a block on access to large sites such as YouTube.

Turkey’s government recently banned sites including Twitter.

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