Well, Syria already does have a spying chokepoint in place. It's had it for years(at least since late 2010 when I was there). They have something similar to China's in that it also does filtering. Also, at some point when I was there around may~june 2011 when this was all starting up they seriously started messing with https stuff conducting MITM on facebook and what not.
Also, no, having the internet cut off absolutely does not hurt Assad. Syria is very sectarian in nature. In other words your loyal base absolutely does not correlate with what services you provide, only what religion/sect/tribe people are.
The rebellion didn't happen because people suddenly started hating Bashar el Assad, it happened because those same people have hated this regime for at least the past 40 years. In 1982, Hafez, the guy who established the regime put down an earlier rebellion that had gone on for something like 3 years by completely destroying entire sections of cities(and pretty much all of Hama) and killing, by conservative estimates, at least 10,000 people. This was during a time when the USSR still existed and where such things within its sphere of influence were par for the course, which is why no international response happened at the time.
The rebellion happened now because of a perceived weakness in the regime's freedom to act(no USSR anymore, much more US influence in the area, weak(er) dictator) and because of perceived international support for similar things happening in Arab nations. That's it. So if the internet in any way helps the FSA get international support by exposing atrocities committed against civilians by the government then you can bet it's in the government's best interest to shut it down.
Also, no, having the internet cut off absolutely does not hurt Assad. Syria is very sectarian in nature. In other words your loyal base absolutely does not correlate with what services you provide, only what religion/sect/tribe people are.
The rebellion didn't happen because people suddenly started hating Bashar el Assad, it happened because those same people have hated this regime for at least the past 40 years. In 1982, Hafez, the guy who established the regime put down an earlier rebellion that had gone on for something like 3 years by completely destroying entire sections of cities(and pretty much all of Hama) and killing, by conservative estimates, at least 10,000 people. This was during a time when the USSR still existed and where such things within its sphere of influence were par for the course, which is why no international response happened at the time.
The rebellion happened now because of a perceived weakness in the regime's freedom to act(no USSR anymore, much more US influence in the area, weak(er) dictator) and because of perceived international support for similar things happening in Arab nations. That's it. So if the internet in any way helps the FSA get international support by exposing atrocities committed against civilians by the government then you can bet it's in the government's best interest to shut it down.