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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Tools behind Belarus internet censorship potentially revealed:

According to a Bloomberg report, the technology used to block much of the internet access during the recent presidential elections in Belarus has come from a US-based company.

The report states that Sandvine Inc., had supplied the necessary equipment to the Lukashenko government a few months earlier through an intermediary.

On August 9, Belarus held the presidential elections where Alexander Lukashenko was elected for the sixth consecutive time. However, the Election Day was marked by irregularities that cast doubt on the transparency of the elections.

In addition to the barricades built by security forces that prevented the passage of civilians to Minsk, Belarus' capital, the internet services in the country had a major disruption that affected access to websites such as social networks, news pages, and messaging applications.

The disruption lasted for up to three days, and there are still websites that are inaccessible in a normal way, so citizens need to use tools such as VPNs or specialized browsers.

[...] This would not be the first time the technology has been accused of being used to repress a nation. Citizen Lab, a Toronto security firm, had indicated that in 2018 equipment from this manufacturer was used in internet blocks that occurred in Egypt and Turkey. Sandvine Inc. said this investigation was false.

Original Submission