Egypt Trying To Shut Off All Internet Access, SMS
from the but-the-internet-has-no-impact dept
There's been this ongoing back and forth between people like Evgeny Morozov and Clay Shirky over the impact of the internet on political activism. And while I think it's silly and misleading to suggest that these tools are the driving force behind some of the political upheavals we've seen, I find it difficult to believe that they're not a useful tool as a part of the process. And it appears that Egyptian officials agree. Over the past few days, as protests have raged in Egypt, there have been various reports about Twitter and Facebook being blocked, with a new report saying that internet access is being cut off entirely for many and with additional reports suggesting that mobile operators have been ordered to shut off SMS text messaging services. Who knows how effective this is, but it does certainly suggest that the Egyptian government is certainly afraid of how these communication tools are being used.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: censorship, egypt, internet, sms
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
the last free country?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It is like flash mob for protests, except that the mob forms quicker than the idea itself. That is the most dangerous, because people feel empowered to act out, without control.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
If you look at the psych behind it. It is always desperation, fear, or oppression that cause these things to occur. Governments around the world have a problem with freedom of speech. The internet allows for it without consequence. This allows people to be more open, anonymous, and they do not fear repercussions in what they say.
This is a good thing in every sense of the word "GOOD". It causes governments to think about their actions. It allows for open debate with out the fear of being shouted down. It allows a record of why things like flash crowds, and revolts have occured. These are things we can learn from.
Since your points were reversed, I will address the first next one ...
"I think authorities are realizing that the internet has the same mob mentality effects as a riot does in public. It encourages behavior that the people would not do by themselves in normal times, and often for reasons that they don't truly understand at the time."
What it leads to for governments is less lead time to quell an uprising. This makes communications, not the internet, an equalizer in the game of government -vs- population. What this means is governments need to address the real issues or face uprisings.
Slowly but surely we are moving to a point where people have more knowledge of what the government is doing. If you look at the EU, they have better telcom than we do and more uprisings. The student uprisings in britain, the crap in spain a month ago, greece, italy, etc. All driven by communications. All saying to the government, you fuked up.
Will they learn from this, no. Will they continue business as usual, yes. Will this happen again and again until governments straighten up and move away from being corporate lackeys and listen to the concerns of the citizens, yes.
Eventually some middle ground will be reached.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
/ sarc
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Not that I expect some random asshole on the Internet to have any clue, or any empathy for people struggling to be given the luxury to behave like moronic douchebags like you just did, mind you.
Anyway, I hope these protests end up being successful, and spread to ever more countries, in the Middle East or not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Make up your minds already.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Vodaphone collusion
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
My fear is that the faster the communication, the shorter the thinking period for the individuals involved. They are reacting not to their own "desperation, fear, or oppression", but almost more to just be part of something. What they don't realize when they start is that the large crowd is often the cover for the violent few, it's like they need the crowd to make it possible.
I am sure that in these countries there is an underlying dislike for the government that is very easy to exploit. The action in Tunisia is serving only to teach those who seek to overthrow the governments in other countries with a road map to public participation. Mobilize the youth on the street, get other more "mature" people to join in, and then use the abilities to enrage this group to try to force the issue.
Really, you should fear that violent uprising is how all administration change happens. Can you imagine this same action in the UK or even the US?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Vodaphone collusion
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Do you know what's funny? The US was BORN out of a violent revolution. The US also had a civil war because two sides disagreed on something.
And yet, here you are, in one of the so called superpowers.
My opinions is, it's been too long since a revolution happened. People are going soft.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Economic madness
See:
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml
http://bgpmon.net/bl og/?p=450
Sounds like the Egyptian government wants to bankrupt the country. Very short-sighted reaction.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Vodaphone collusion
Vodafone press realease:
"All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course."
What the press release fails to mention is that Vodafone, with its subsidiaries, is the second largest ISP in Egypt, offering ADSL and broadband to millions of customers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Or are you just talking with a personal opinion and no proof to back it up?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
The violent few become the many violent ones when things are not good, generally when economies fail, then you see a lot of angry people not being coy about violence, specially if they are censored and told to be quiet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Economic madness
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Yes, and my only thought was, what in the fock are these idiots doing.
"my sporting team won the championship"
This is such a european and south american thing. In every case it comes from the oppressed, the angry, and the uneducated. People with no real hope for anything better.
If you look at US riots (California, florida, new york, etc) its always the same thing a slow simmering followed by an event to trigger. The communications part just makes it more likely. The only cure is to remove the underlying causes poverty, lack of education, and give people hope. All of this goes back to government policies. The lack of education goes to unions and parents who think they don't need to do anything because the state is educating their children.
"What they don't realize when they start is that the large crowd is often the cover for the violent few, it's like they need the crowd to make it possible."
They are called catalysts or triggers. They come in many forms, and again they are not the cause. They are the spark that starts the fire.
"Really, you should fear that violent uprising is how all administration change happens. Can you imagine this same action in the UK or even the US?"
Actually, yes I can, most western countries are on my failure watch list, due to the same patterns being repeated globalization, immigration, entitlements and their reduction, LCD education, high cost of health care. They all have less than 25 years at the rate they are going.
All of it boils down to a lack of seperation between governments and corporate sponsorship of politicians, and monoply rents being applied to the population.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Thanks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Vodaphone collusion
Nice to hear that Vodafone is such a law-abiding company. Pity it seems too pick and choose in which county to follow the law:
2006 - Greece: Vodafone fined €76m over wiretap scandal
2007 - Greece: Vodafone again fined €19 million
2009 - Australia: Vodafone fined for SMS spam
2009 - Italy: Vodafone fined over unfair advertising
2010 - Spain: Vodafone fined for showing customer data
Apparently, at least one Egypt ISP, Noor Group's dial-up DLS service, has not complied with the government 'request'.
And of course, while every site in Egypt is down, the Egyptian Stock Exchange site isn't! O irony.
As far as Vodafone is concerned, you can only come to one conclusion. How can a company that is doing big business in a highly corrupt country, do so without being very actively involved in that corruption? By simply rolling over and taking part in the most widespread internet censorship to date, Vodafone has proved that they support this, right up to the CEO. They also made sure they won't see a cent of my money, ever.
Shame on you, Vittorio!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
didn't even make you wonder how come with in 7 days suddenly 5 countries in the middle east all had "riots".
do you actually believe that is normal normally things like these take several month to happen.
im all for communication makes things go faster but this is ridiculous, i don't want to sound like a conspiracy nut, but this has to has external interests at work.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Because for the U.S. and Israel this is actually bad, all their allies are being deposed and the ones that take over probably may not be that pro-western, so the only ones that could benefit from unrest are the Iranians and others that don't like the west. Never mind the U.S. saying that the governments should respect the will of the people, that is just in public, on closed doors they probably where the ones that told the Egyptian authorities how to contain the internet and disable cells and telephones to try and contain the situation.
Now without the conspiracy theories here is what probably happened.
Tunisia rose up, others saw it and thought they could do the same thing, since those countries have all authoritarian governments the people don't actually like them and there is a freedom that they want to have it and they saw a chance at that and seized the moment, with internal discontent groups organizing and helping each other.
[ link to this | view in thread ]