The Syrian Revolution Will Still Be Tweeted: An Activist Talks About Coping With Assad's Web Blackout

Syria left the Internet yesterday, as Assad al-Bashad's regime clamped down even further on communications inside his war-ravaged country, for a time even blocking landline access to the outside world. But why now? One theory is that the Free Syrian Army's slow advance into the suburbs of Damascus, which caused the capital's international airport to shutter, has pushed the regime to seek any methods available to slow down FSA operations. For several months now the Syrian resistance has been attempting to patch together their own version of a "no fly zone" to prevent Assad's forces from bombing rebel enclaves like Idlib. It's no secret that the various military cells mounting armed resistance against Assad have been using social media to both organize and demonstrate the success of their operations, largely in an attempt to draw international support to their cause, and just as likely to prove the FSA's capacity to organize and overthrow the Syrian president. Still, this web "blackout" for Syria is not as all-encompassing as it might seem from the outside, as most Syrians that regularly access the web are already used to searching for proxies, VPNs and various other circumvention methods to access blocked portions of the internet. There is also the belief that the U.S. has, or is attempting to help Syrians reach out with the help of "internet in a box" kits, which are said to include laptops, satellite receivers and 50-foot cable. To learn how seriously the blackout is effecting efforts to share information within and outside of Syria, I spoke with a Syrian activist who goes by the name of Abdullah (https://twitter.com/SyrianSmurf), and who is based in the FSA stronghold of Idlib. Motherboard: Hey, was wondering if you're still in Idlib? If so, how are you dealing with web blackout? Abdullah: I'm actually not in Idlib at the moment, but will be there in a few days. Web blackout is not new to Idlib itself, though. Most people that have internet access in Idlib over the past months usually use satellites. Normal DSL lines have been cut in most Idlib suburbs for over a year. People in northern Idlib sometimes are able to use Turkish networks. Other cities and provinces, however, don't usually have complete web blackouts. So whoever has a satellite is using it. People that have working landlines are using dial-up. It's fairly risky for you to be active on social media and sharing FSA info from Syria, isn't it? The risk is always there. But in general activists tend to use fake names and try to keep their exact locations anonymous. Any idea if Syrians are receiving help from the U.S. State Department? The only help I know of that the US government provided, or at least claimed to have provided, was "communications equipment," although I've never seen any of it personally or know anyone that has. Most activists with internet satellites either purchased the equipment using personal funds or had private donors. Do you think latest crackdown is due to the FSA reaching Damascus? Yes, I believe this is a last ditch effort by the regime to slow down or stop the FSA…and the revolution. It is obvious that the FSA has gotten much stronger lately and are close to taking down the regime. Some activists however feel like this web blackout is an attempt to identify areas where activists and FSA members are since they would be the ones with internet access (satellites). That is just a rumour though and no one knows for sure.

Watch part five of Vice's "Ground Zero: Syria - The Atrocities Within Aleppo's Field Hospital" below, and read a Reddit AMA with Robert King, the photographer behind the series.

Image credit: BBC