DUSHANBE, January 17, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- The chairman of Tajikistan''s Association of Internet Providers, Asomuddin Atoyev, has confirmed that Internet service providers (ISPs) in Tajikistan have received verbal and SMS instructions from the communications service agency to access to the Facebook social network and the Russian version of Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service.

According to him, ISPs received SMS instructions requesting the sites to be blocked on January 16 and ISPs that are not members of the Association of Internet Providers of Tajikistan have already blocked access the mentioned websites.

“ www.toptj.com and www.topnews.tj are also on the list of websites to be blocked,” Atoyev said.

He further added that ISPs that are members of the Association of Internet Providers were waiting for an official instruction from the state-run Communications Service.

“The Association members now include Intercom, Babilon-T, Saturn Online, Telecom Technology, and Tarrena Association,” Atoyev said.

Meanwhile, the communications service agency head, Beg Zuhurov, told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service hat his service had not given any instructions to block the sites.  Zuhurov suggested that the issue might have been caused by technical problems faced by the providers themselves.

Facebook and RFE/RL''s Tajik site are currently available via limited number of providers.

This is the third time the Tajik authorities block access to Facebook.

For the first time, access to the Facebook social network was blocked in March last year.  Tajik authorities blocked Facebook and several online news sites, but later unblocked them.

Several ISPs blocked access to Facebook again in late November.

The chairman of Tajikistan''s Association of Internet Providers, Asomuddin Atoyev, noted on November 26 that access to the website was stopped following a request by the state-run Communications Service.

The Communications Service representatives said Facebook was blocked for what they called “technical reasons.”

Facebook became available again on the Internet in Tajikistan in early December.

According to data of Socialbakers.com, there are 41,160 users of the Facebook social network in Tajikistan, which is 5.87 percent of the overall number of Internet-users in the country.