Iraqi government blocks access to social media

In an attempt to deny access to social media tools to insurgents as they sweep through the country, the Iraqi government has blocked Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

However the reality of warfare in the 21st century struck hard as it dawned on the authorities that losing physical ground meant losing control of cyberspace too.

Companies monitoring internet traffic reported a significant drop in social media access in and around Baghdad as providers complied with censorship orders from the Iraqi ministry of communications. Access disruption was reported in other parts of the country as  well.

According to analysts, regions beyond government control often relied on alternative sources, such as satellite links and fibre-optic lines coming from telecommunications providers in Turkey, Iran and Jordan.

Services in semi autonomous Kurdish regions, for example continued without interruption.

It kind of echoed the larger themes in Iraq, of how little the Iraqi government controlled that country, The Washington Post reported Doug Madory, a senior analyst with Renesys, a New Hampshire-based company tracking internet performance worldwide reported.

Several hours of outages were detected by internet monitoring services on Monday and Thursday with those on Friday appearing to be more sweeping and longer-lasting.

However, no specific reason for blocking of the services was currently known, although the Kuwait News Agency reported that the Iraqi federal government had decided to block several websites and social media services citing a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Communications.

Islamic militants had been using the internet in attempts to terrorise, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria recently showed a 61-minute propaganda video that showed militants  knocking on the door of a Sunni police major, blindfolding and beheading him.

A Facebook spokesperson told the Daily News, ''We are disturbed by reports of access issues in Iraq and are investigating. Limiting access to internet services - essential for communication and commerce for millions of people - is a matter of concern for the global community,'' the spokesperson said in a statement
 
Twitter came out with a similar statement on its Policy account.

''Users in Iraq are reporting issues accessing our service. We're investigating their reports and we hope service will be restored quickly,'' the account tweeted Friday evening.