ISIS cracks down on Internet use in Raqqa stronghold
Militants from ISIS raided Internet cafes in their Syrian stronghold city of Raqqa after ordering a ban on wireless networks that can be used by private homes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Monday.
In order to implement a news blackout of the group’s activities, ISIS had given cafe owners four days from Sunday to disconnect wireless Internet networks used by residents, the Observatory said, citing an ISIS leaflet circulated in Raqqa.
Citing a network of sources on the ground, the Britain-based Observatory said ISIS members had already started an Internet crackdown that included shutting down networks that could be used by its own fighters at home. The group also aims to cut off communication between its members and their relatives for fear they may try to escape or pass on information to intelligence agencies, according to the Observatory.
The activist group posted online a picture of a leaflet being distributed in the city warning Internet providers they had four days to cut private Wi-Fi connections. “The following is obligatory on all Internet providers: the removal of Wi-Fi connections distributed outside of Internet cafes and private connections, including for [ISIS] soldiers.”
The activist group said the ban was intended to ensure “access through Internet cafes only in order to monitor access.”
The ban will affect activist groups such as Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which documents ISIS abuses in the city, but also potential defectors from the group, the Observatory said. “This step is part of the organization’s attempt to impose a news blackout on what is going on inside Raqqa city,” it added. “It has been conducting patrols and raids on Internet cafes, searching them for people who are transmitting news.”
ISIS is “trying to cut communications between its non-Syrian fighters and their families for fear of them trying to return home,” it added.
The Internet has been a rare lifeline for activists in the city and a way for them to document life under ultra-hard-line rule.
U.S.-led forces dropped anti-ISIS leaflets on Raqqa, the activist group called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently reported on itsTwitter feed Sunday. The leaflets showed a comic book-style image of dead ISIS fighters and a group of four people in military fatigues with guns walking on a road through the bodies. The words “Freedom will come” are written in Arabic at the bottom of the image.
The soldiers appeared to be from the Kurdish militia, which has joined with the U.S. in fighting ISIS in Syria.
In December ISIS ordered shopkeepers to shut down their wireless Internet during prayer times in the city of Deir al-Zor.
https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jul-21/307528-isis-cracks-down-on-internet-use-in-raqqa-stronghold.ashx