Libya’s Internet hit with severe disruptions
Libya’s Internet links have been severely disrupted as chaos spreads across the country, with a defiant Col. Moammar Gadhafi today vowing to die a “martyr” rather than relinquish his grip on power.
As reports describe portions of Libya as a “war zone,” and the country’s deputy U.N. ambassador is saying “genocide” is under way, inbound and outbound Internet traffic has plummeted to a fraction of what’s normal. Over the weekend, traffic appeared to be following a “curfew” pattern, with more restrictions imposed in the evenings, and YouTube is now almost entirely unreachable while Facebook is blocked.
Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist of Arbor Networks, said that as of today, Libya is experiencing a significant Internet outage with traffic volumes 60 percent to 80 percent below normal levels.