According to the agency report Ephplatforms that monitor global network traffic such as Netblocks, Internet Outage and Cloudflare Radar pointed out that Internet use on the Island fell almost completely around 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and did not recover until 3:00 a.m. on Friday.
“The metrics show an almost total collapse of Internet traffic from Cuba,” Netblocks stated on Twitter, which later confirmed in another message that the incident lasted “about seven hours.”
Internet service returning to #Cuba this morning after a country-wide outage last night.
According to @kentikinc data, the blackout began at 00:30 UTC (8:30pm local) and began returning at 07:10 UTC (3:10am local), lasting over 6 hours. pic.twitter.com/73z3nGpIcc
— Doug Madory (@DougMadory) September 30, 2022
This platform, like other similar ones, pointed out that the outage occurred shortly after “several protests over blackouts and difficult conditions, exacerbated by Hurricane Ian,” were reported. He also speculated that the “incident possibly to limit the free flow of information.”
“Complete internet outage observed tonight in Cuba, apparently in response to protest over lack of electricity after Hurricane Ian,” Cloudfare Radar said in the same address.
⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show a near-total collapse of internet traffic from #Cuba amid reports of major protests over power cuts and poor conditions exacerbated by Hurricane Ian, with security forces deployed; incident likely to limit the free flow of information ? #The light #SOSCuba pic.twitter.com/BCugUR9JZq
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) September 30, 2022
Efe stresses that the Government has not offered explanations and that the official media have not picked it up so far.
During the late night of Thursday, protests related to the total collapse of the national electrical system that occurred after the passage of the powerful Hurricane Ian on Tuesday through the western end of the Island were registered in different parts of Cuba.
In recent days, among others, a cacerolazo in Camagüey, another in Holguín, as well as rallies and protests in the Havana municipalities of Cerro and Arroyo Naranjo and in the town of Batabanó have transpired. The long blackout compromises food and worsens the daily life of Cubans.
The protests, although mostly of lesser intensity, have been taking place in Cuba for months, mainly due to the discontent generated by the prolonged and serious energy crisis that the country is experiencing, due to long daily blackouts, sometimes up to 12 hours in a row.
The power outages, which are mixed with the deepening economic crisis, were one of the causes of the protests on July 11, 2021, the largest in decades.
Efe/OnCuba.
