Internet censorship in Syria (original) (raw)

Internet censorship in Syria is extensive. Syria bans websites for political reasons and arrests people accessing them. Filtering and blocking was found to be pervasive in the political and Internet tools areas, and selective in the social and conflict/security areas by the OpenNet Initiative in August 2009. Internet connectivity between Syria and the outside world shut down in late November 2011, and again in early May 2013. Syria's Internet was cut off more than ten times in 2013, and again in March 2014. The Syrian government blamed terrorists for the cut off.