The civil unrest in Syria has resulted in a shutdown of most of the country's Internet services...Syrian Internet access is primarily controlled by the state-owned SyriaTel...[that] buy[s] most of their Internet transit from Turk Telekom and Deutsche Telekom, with some contribution from PCCW, Tata, and Telecom Italia...Notably, systems that are inactive include SyriaTel's 3G mobile data networks and smaller downstream [service providers] like Sawa, INET, and Runnet...The Syrian outage...comes the same day that the [UN] Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, released a report that noted an increase in governments restricting the flow of information online because of the Web's ability to mobilize protests..."[T]he Internet's unique ability to provide ample space for individual free expression can lead to the strengthening of other human rights, including political, economic and social rights," said Cynthia Wong, Director of Center for Democracy and Technology's Project on Global Internet Freedom. [Refers to Renesys, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube]