Stratfor monitors the growing use of Internet by governments

Some governments suffering public unrest have cut Internet connections to the country to the point where interruptions could be as high as 90 percent, as happened recently in Iran, when most Iranians were cut off from the outside world, according to the US Center for Strategic and Security Studies.

The website said the move attracted international media attention to the point that "# Internet4Iran" has become a global topic on Twitter.

Tehran had previously disrupted the Internet during protests in late 2017 and early 2018, but the scale of the current outages is unprecedented in Iran.

The website pointed out that the Iranian government was working towards greater control over its networks by building an internal network "intranet" as did China and Russia.

In this way, Tehran can also prevent external influence. Such networks give governments greater power when shutting down Internet connections, allowing local services to continue while cutting off access to external networks and channels.

He added that Iran was not the only country that restricted or blocked access to the Internet in response to internal unrest, and that the government's attempts to control ranged from the closure of social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp and ban all Internet activity.

These restrictions are aimed at preventing demonstrators from organizing, stopping the spread of misinformation, suppressing sectarian violence, and obstructing contacts between coup plotters.

Although governments could use their control over networks for other corrupt purposes - including economic espionage - the use of this power to cut the Internet was particularly devastating and evident in 2019.

Some examples include India, which used the Internet to quell sectarian violence during the May 2019 elections, and Ethiopia, which used it during a regional coup in June 2019, the latest example by the government.

Iraq carried out Internet disconnections in Baghdad and much of southern Iraq during strong civil unrest in October and November, and was used by Sudan during a security crackdown in June 2019.

Governments are likely to continue using the Internet in the foreseeable future, Stratfor said, especially as it brings more control over the Internet and mobile networks.

But these Internet restrictions create problems for travelers and businesses by prohibiting contact with others inside the country, especially with partners outside the country. Of road traffic.

Multinational companies that rely on Internet access are unable to complete transactions, and other local companies that need to process credit card transactions are disrupted.

The website pointed out some measures that can help companies and travelers anticipate and mitigate Internet outages, such as:

• Understand the local political climate and whether important events such as elections are likely to lead to such measures.
• Determine whether the government has the capacity and intent to enforce such segments. For example, autocratic governments are likely to use them, and countries with their own intranet face fewer internal disturbances than cutting off external communications.
• Develop contingency plans for operations to continue in case of disconnection.
• Secure alternative means of communication, especially devices that do not rely on an Internet connection.