Kazakhstan’s government shut down the internet after the cabinet resigned amid widespread anti-government rallies.
Kazakhstan, which has the world’s second-largest (BTC) mining hash rate, is facing massive internet outages due to local anti-government rallies.
According to NetBlocks, Kazakhstan is “in the midst of a nation-scale internet outage following a day of mobile internet disruptions and partial restrictions.” According to the report, Kazakhstan’s normalised network connectivity plummeted to 2% on Wednesday.
“The incident is likely to severely limit coverage of escalating anti-government protests,” NetBlocks noted.
According to some reports, Kazakhtelecom, Kazakhstan’s largest telecom firm, has shut down the internet across the country. Cellular networks are also apparently down in certain places, including Almaty.
The continuous internet outage in Kazakhstan comes after the Kazakhstan administration resigned over demonstrations caused by a dramatic increase in petrol prices. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed Kazakhstan’s government early Wednesday and announced a state of emergency in Almaty and adjacent provinces.
According to some commentators, the protests are also a reaction to the country’s lack of democracy. “Young, internet savvy Kazakhs, especially in Almaty, likely want similar freedoms as Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans, Kyrgyz, and Armenians, who have also vented their frustrations over the years with authoritarian regimes,” Tim Ash, emerging market strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said.
The protests have turned violent, with reports of protestors exchanging gunfire with state security forces such as the police and the national guard.
The most recent internet failures may have an impact on the worldwide Bitcoin hash rate. As previously revealed by Cointelegraph, Kazakhstan accounted for 18% of total worldwide BTC mining hash rate distribution in October 2021, trailing only the United States.
After the Chinese government announced a renewed ban on the cryptocurrency business in September 2021, many Chinese Bitcoin mining companies and miners were gradually transferring their operations to Kazakhstan.
