Situation of Syria, as of 1 December 2012. (Creative Commons/Wikipedia)

While President Bashar Al-Assad’s government claimed that the blackout was the result of a well-rehearsed terrorist attack act to deny connection to Syrian’s citizens, activist groups blamed the government and viewed the blackout as a sign that the government would pursue violent raids on rebels.

Most technology experts have concluded that the internet blackout was the government’s doing.

In a blogpost from technology security firm Cloudflare, staffers explain that the government-owned Syrian Telecommunications Establishment must have been at fault.

"The systematic way in which routes were withdrawn suggests that this was done through updates in router configurations, not through a physical failure or cable cut"

Ars Technica reported that the centralization of the nation's internet traffic gave the Assad regime power to use it as a weapon to block rebels from using the internet to document images of civil war and communicating to each other.

When the internet resumed on Saturday, fighting between the government and opposition groups continued. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the conflict in Syria had reached “appalling heights of brutality” and also warned that the number of refugees from the conflict could reach 700,000 by early next year, the Washington Post reported.

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of Syria here.

Reach executive producer Jackie Mansky here.