Bloomberg on Saturday, September 12, reported that it has information that the American company Sandvine provided the Belarusian authorities with equipment to block the Internet in the country.
It is alleged that the agency has a recording of the company’s conference, at which its leaders claim that they have worked with the state authorities of Belarus for more than a year.
Alexander Khavang, technical director of Sandvine, indirectly admitted involvement in the restrictions, saying that Belarus “can use the company’s equipment to block websites and instant messengers.”
After that, the agency notes, the company faced a negative reaction to its actions in the United States.
40% of Internet traffic in Belarus is filtered using Deep Packet Inspection technology. Such equipment is used by large corporations to prevent leakage of insider information. It is also used to combat terrorism and the spread of child pornography.
After August 10, with the beginning of mass protests in Minsk and a number of other cities of Belarus, there were interruptions in the work of the Internet, including mobile.
On September 6, the Belarusian operator A1, by order of the authorized state bodies in Minsk, reduced the bandwidth of the mobile Internet. At the same time, problems with the Internet are observed in Minsk and on its outskirts and among the subscribers of the mobile operator MTS.
Mass protests began in Belarus after the presidential elections were held in the country on August 9. According to the CEC, the current head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, won 80.08% of the vote and became president for the sixth time in a row. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was supported by 10.09% of voters