Skype, Whatsap, Facebook Access Limited in Azerbaijan

Whatsapp, Facebook and Skype have been working with frequent interruptions in Azerbaijan over the past few days.

Whatsapp, Facebook and Skype have been working with frequent interruptions in Azerbaijan over the past few days.

Although the reasons for the interruption of the services have yet to be clarified, the president of the Internet forum of Azerbaijan, Osman Gunduz, has confirmed that the international traffic of clients WhatsApp and Skype has been shut down.

“Unfortunately, the Ministry does not give explanations, but since the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies remains the regulatory state body in this sphere, it is obvious that mobile operators and a backbone provider can not take such a decision without the permission of this agency. Our monitoring shows that the ban on foreign communication is carried out by these companies”, Gunduz was quoted by

local media

as saying.

Minval.az suggests that the decision was taken in order to prevent terrorists to communicate with each other during the Islamic Solidarity Games.

However, Gunduz states that there might be an economic factor behind the move.

“Interference of interested parties is not excluded. It’s no secret that free calls on the Internet do not please mobile operators”, he

said

.

The block arrives only few days after a Baku city court decided to back the decision of the Ministry of Communication to block several media outlets including,

Turan TV

, Meydan TV and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani branch, Radio Azadlig.

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