Tajikistan Blocks Local Access To Facebook
By PanARMENIAN
Tajikistan blocked local access to Facebook and two Russian-language sites that published an article critical of its long-serving president on Saturday, March 3, representatives of two Internet providers said.
According to Reuters, the shutdown was ordered by the state-run communications service, the local Internet providers said, requesting anonymity. Users who tried to access Facebook or the two websites, which published a story critical of President Imomali Rakhmon, were automatically re-directed to the home page of their provider.
“This morning, we carried out the instruction of the communications service and blocked the sites facebook.com, tjknews.com and zvezda.ru,” said one of the providers. “We could not refuse to carry out this instruction.”
The communications service was not available for comment. Government officials directed all questions about the shutdown to the service.
