Censorship News 11 March 2025

Cable Cuts, Crackdowns & Satellite Surges: Global Internet Access Upheavals (7–8 Sept 2025)

Key Facts In-Depth Report Undersea Cable Outage Shakes Asia & Mideast A sudden severing of multiple undersea internet cables in the Red Sea over the weekend sent shockwaves through global connectivity. On September 7, monitoring groups reported that two major subsea fiber systems (the SEA-ME-WE 4 and IMEWE cables) were cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, dramatically slowing or disrupting internet service in countries including India, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE beaumontenterprise.com beaumontenterprise.com. NetBlocks called it “a series of subsea cable outages” that degraded connectivity across the region beaumontenterprise.com. Technology giant Microsoft alerted Azure cloud customers to expect increased latency

8 September 2025

Global Internet Access Shockwaves: Cable Cuts, Censorship & Broadband Booms (Sept 6–7, 2025)

Massive Outages and Network Disruptions On September 6, a sudden multi-cable break in the Red Sea sent shockwaves through global connectivity. Several undersea fiber-optic cables (including the SMW4 and IMEWE systems) were simultaneously cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beaumontenterprise.com. The impact was felt across continents – internet traffic between Europe/Asia and the Middle East slowed to a crawl, and countries like Pakistan and India experienced degraded service beaumontenterprise.com. Microsoft’s Azure cloud warned users of increased latency as data was rerouted onto backup paths beaumontenterprise.com. In the Gulf, UAE customers on du and Etisalat noticed sluggish speeds beaumontenterprise.com. While the exact

7 September 2025

Broadband · Censorship · Global Access · Internet · Technology Trends

Internet Access Upheaval: Censorship Crackdowns, Satellite Booms & Shutdowns Rock the Globe (Aug 31 – Sep 1, 2025)

Key Facts Government Crackdowns on Digital Access Russia doubles down on censorship: In a dramatic escalation of internet control, Russia implemented new laws on September 1 targeting both communication platforms and online content. The Kremlin is forcing a switch from WhatsApp and Telegram to a domestic messaging app called “Max,” which was launched in June by state-controlled tech firm VK thebarentsobserver.com thebarentsobserver.com. All phones sold in Russia from Sept 1 onward will come with “Max” pre-installed as the default, and officials are pressuring businesses and even universities to adopt it. At the same time, merely viewing or searching for banned information online

1 September 2025

Censorship · Global News · Internet Access · NASDAQ:CMCSA · NYSE:T · Satellite Internet · Technology Policy

Myanmar’s Internet Dilemma: From Blackouts to Starlink Dreams

In 2021, more than 400 cell towers were destroyed amid fighting, crippling parts of Myanmar’s mobile network. MPT’s FTTH network expanded to 154 of 330 townships by early 2024, up from 27 townships in 2019. As of early 2024, Myanmar had about 64.3 million mobile connections (roughly 117% SIM penetration), with 4G coverage around 90% of the population and 5G footprint below 1%. By late 2024, well over 3,000 Starlink dishes were reportedly active in Myanmar, with more than 80 units confiscated in 2022. In December 2021 the MoTC ordered mobile operators to double data prices, and by 2023 the

5 August 2025

Censorship · Connectivity · Internet · Myanmar · Starlink

Elon Musk’s Starlink vs. Iran’s Blackout: Fact-Checking the 20,000 Secret Dishes Reconnecting a Nation

On June 14, 2025, after Israeli strikes, Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout, and Elon Musk tweeted that Starlink was “The beams are on,” effectively activating Starlink over Iran. The activation made Starlink connectivity available only to users with Starlink terminals, not to the entire Iranian population. Estimates by late 2024 placed roughly 10,000 to 20,000 clandestine Starlink terminals operating inside Iran. Reuters reported in December 2022 that nearly 100 Starlink terminals were active in Iran as SpaceX began enabling Starlink there. By January 2025, Iran International reported up to 100,000 Iranian users benefiting from satellite internet, with official figures

21 June 2025

Censorship · Fact-checking · Iran · NASDAQ:TSLA · Starlink · Technology

Internet Kill Switch: Recurring Blackouts in Syria, Iraq, Algeria – And Who’s Next?

Syria has conducted annual nationwide internet shutdowns on high school exam days since 2016, with 2020–2025 patterns showing daily outages of roughly 3.5 to 5.5 hours during exam periods. Syria’s shutdowns use an asymmetric model that allows outbound traffic but blocks inbound responses, making the internet effectively unusable. In Syria, the 2023 exam season produced at least 11 nationwide outages, each about 4 hours long (06:00–10:00), spanning May–June for the first round and late June–July for the second. Iraq began regular exam-related shutdowns in 2023, imposing near-daily four-hour nationwide outages (04:00–08:00) during exams, with a total of 42 outages in

18 June 2025

Censorship · Cybersecurity · Digital Rights · Internet Shutdowns · Middle East

Kwangmyong: Inside North Korea’s National Intranet Service

Kwangmyong is North Korea’s national intranet launched in the early 2000s, a closed network that provides email, websites, and digital resources only within North Korea to isolate citizens from the global Internet. <li North Korea’s first internal email service, Sili Bank, was established in 2001 to enable internal electronic correspondence on Kwangmyong. The first intranet “internet café” opened in Pyongyang in 2002 with about 100 computers, marking the start of public access to Kwangmyong. Kwangmyong uses .kp domain names and private IP ranges such as 10.x.x.x, is not routable on the global Internet, and most access is via IP addresses

18 June 2025

Censorship · Internet · Intranet · North Korea · Technology

Internet Access in Cuba: From Control to Constellations

The first internet connection in Cuba was established in 1996 as a 64 Kbps link via Sprint in the United States. In 2011, with help from Venezuela, Cuba installed the ALBA-1 undersea fiber-optic cable, which became publicly usable in January 2013, replacing the old satellite backbone. From December 6–8, 2018, ETECSA rolled out mobile internet over 3G for Cuban cellphone users. By the end of 2019, an estimated 7.1 million Cubans were online in some capacity, as mobile data began to take hold. In 2023, the Arimao undersea cable, built with France’s Orange, was completed, linking Cuba to Martinique and

8 June 2025

Censorship · Connectivity · Cuba · Internet Access · NYSE:ORAN · Satellite Internet

Internet Access in North Korea. How North Korea’s Secret Internet Works: Discover the Hidden World of Kwangmyong

Kwangmyong is North Korea’s nationwide domestic intranet that is completely isolated from the World Wide Web and hosts roughly 1,000–5,500 internal websites. Global Internet access is restricted to a tiny elite; only a few dozen websites are reachable from abroad, with a 2016 leak noting 28 .kp domains and North Korea having about 1,024 Internet addresses. Star Joint Venture Co., created around 2009 as a North Korea–Thailand partnership between the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Loxley Pacific, is the gatekeeper for international connectivity and IP allocations. Koryolink launched North Korea’s 3G network in December 2008; by 2011 it had

11 March 2025

Censorship · Internet · Kwangmyong · North Korea · NYSE:CHU · Technology

Censorship News 11 March 2025 - 8 September 2025