If Syrian protests and violence continues, why is Syria no longer trending?

(CBS/What's Trending) - When the "Day of Rage" happened on April 29, 2011,  Syria dominated the conversation online as thousands of Syrians took to the streets while the names of the cities, such as Daraa, Banas, and Homs began to trend. The world passed on tweets, Facebook messages, and YouTube videos as protesters claimed that over 50 people were killed.

Two weeks later and nothing has changed in Syria. If anything, citizens claim that it has gotten worse. Reports show that tanks are being used to quash the protest, and snipers on rooftops are shooting at anything that moves.

So why isn't the world as interested as they were before? Is that we don't care anymore? Some are claiming "crisis fatigue." After Tunisian and Egyptian citizens toppled their regimes and the struggle in Libya evolved into a full civil war, the violence in Syria and Yemen that continues daily seems to be the same sad news reported over and over again. Westerners are focusing their attentions elsewhere since an end to the "Arab Spring" doesn't seem near. 

But, there may be another reason: Syria has clamped down on social media and the internet.

In the early days, YouTube videos of protesters were easily found, but that has slowed to the rare occasional video because of Internet access in the area being cut. The military has reportedly cut off phone lines, and there are claims that the regime is being trained by Iran to disrupt third-generation internet services and to conduct communications surveillance to penetrate Skype. Purportedly over 10,000 people have been detained, and protesters have been beaten and tortured to reveal Facebook usernames and passwords.

Human rights groups say over 800 people have been killed since the protests began seven weeks ago. Every day, stories are coming out showing more violence and even more deaths.

Here is one of the recent videos that managed to make in on the Web. A video posted by SHAMSNN, supposedly from this morning, shows snipers on the rooftops in Jassem.

Facebook has now joined in the fight and shut down the Syrian military's official page. Now, some Syrian Facebook users are reporting that they are encountering a a primitive certificate-forging scam run by the government.

Whether it's the blockade of citizen journalism from the Internet that is stopping Syria from trending or people in the West stopped caring, the result is still the same. The Syrian protestors, who need all the support they can get, aren't getting their word out to enough people who can help them in their plight.