National shutdown
On 27 September, the Ministry of Transportation, Communication, and High Technologies (MTCHT) issued a statement saying it would restrict Internet access throughout the country to "prevent large-scale Armenian provocations.” The shutdown was ordered as intense fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh border region.
- Total Duration 75 days
Azerbaijan
- Population
- 10,202,850
- UN Classification
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- Land Locked Developing Country
Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free
Local impact
Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory in South Caucasus that has historical and cultural significance for both countries, which have fought over it since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Authorities had blocked access to social media and messaging platforms a day before it announced the shutdown, on 26 September, “to prevent unwanted, unverified, war-related content on social networks.” Mobile operators and the Special State Security Service, citing user privacy, subsequently encouraged Internet users not to use VPN services to try to access social media platforms. The disruption is the country’s longest Internet blackout to date.
On October 8, Bloomberg reported that the government used deep packet inspection (DPI) technology through Delta Telecom, the country’s state-owned backbone Internet provider. It installed a system to block live stream videos from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, using products from Sandvine, a Canada-based “networking equipment company specialized in network traffic management and Deep Packet Inspection”. Sandvine had previously been used by the governments of Egypt and Turkey to deploy spyware.
On November 11, the MTCHT announced that it is lifting Internet access restrictions effective the following day.
Related documentation
The government released a statement saying it would restrict Internet access throughout the country to "prevent large-scale Armenian provocations.”