The Impact Of Egypt Cutting Itself Off From The Internet
from the could-be-pretty-big dept
As the news came out late Monday that the last remaining independent ISP, who had remained online in Egypt, has now turned off its connection to the wider internet as well, people are beginning to explore what this all means. Andrew McLaughlin, who until recently was the deputy CTO of the Obama administration, has penned a thoughtful article for the Guardian noting how this emphasizes how infrastructure really matters and how limited competition allows these situations to develop:The internet cutoff shows how the details of infrastructure matter. Despite having no large-scale or centralised censorship apparatus, Egypt was still able to shut down its communications in a matter of minutes. This was possible because Egypt permitted only three wireless carriers to operate, and required all internet service providers (ISPs) to funnel their traffic through a handful of international links. Confronted with mass demonstrations and fearful about a populace able to organise itself, the government had to order fewer than a dozen companies to shut down their networks and disconnect their routers from the global internet.But, perhaps the bigger question is how will the cut off actually impact the Egyptian economy and wider society as a whole. It's really quite amazing how integrated the internet has become in all our lives, and it really has become a fundamental part of the economy and how we live. Pulling the plug on the internet in a decently large country has serious ramification both inside the country (most seriously) and outside:
A central unknown at this moment is what the economic harm to the country will be. Without internet and voice networks, Egyptians are losing transactions and deals, their stocks and commodities cannot be traded, their goods are halted on frozen transportation networks, and their bank deposits are beyond reach.I imagine that there will be numerous case studies that come out of this unfortunate situation, based on what happens. One can only hope that the actual harms aren't as bad as they might be.
Also unknown is how many Egyptians have been harmed in non-economic ways – as human beings. As things stand, a worried mother who has not heard from her son or daughter can't send an email or check Facebook for a status update. A witness to violence or abuse can't seek help, document responsibility, or warn others via Twitter or a blog.
Life-saving information is inaccessible. Healthy, civil debate about the future is squashed. And in the absence of trustworthy news, firsthand reports and real-time images, rumour and fear flourish. In all those ways, the total internet cutoff undermines the government's own interest in restoring calm and order.
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: andrew mclaughlin, connectivity, egypt, internet
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Something I just found relevent to this.
"Egypt can use this number for dial up: +33172890150 (login 'toto' password 'toto') - thanks to a French ISP (FDN)"
I love how it's a French ISP offering this one.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Something I just found relevent to this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Something I just found relevent to this.
But I just found this stating that Google setup a number for Egypt to call to post Twitters. I would guess that Google made sure they could call out before setting that up. Again, I don't know.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
and that was what we know before the internet was completely down
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sound priorities, Andrew...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Same thing happened in my neighborhood...
I'm thinking, wait he always pays his dues with online bill pay. What's this going to mean for our budget?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The downside is...
Besides the impact on our freedoms, there would be a huge impact on business. A large chunk of business is done online these days. Not just retail business either, but business to business communications. There are many online only companies today. Shutting off the internet would just about shut down the country.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The downside is...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The downside is...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tipping point
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What they didn't cut off was the will of the people to keep going to the streets, and somehow they are still organizing and protesting, so the world may not be there with them right now but they are still using networks(human or otherwise).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And as long as the new regime isn't psychotic, they can always timidly claim forcible coercion.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It won't kill the messenger, just slow it down a bit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Also people should look out for:
- Smoke signals.
- Light signals.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pigeons with USB drives
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pigeon-net
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
and no, it's not just what happens when that atm can't spit out cash.
it's about credit not working which means cash only. it's about there not being enough physical cash reserves to survive nation-wide bank runs. it's about a lack of electronic credit causing stockpiles of cash forming in centralized areas which make looting and theft crazy lucrative.
it's about all this wealth suddenly moving to meat-space and the authorities not being able to do a thing about protecting it because they're too busy elsewhere.
and none of that even touches on foreign sentiment and engagement into the egyptian economy. the mere hint of wealth being suddenly lost like this will cause a ripple effect through all future investment not only in egypt, but similar "relatively stable" nations. think of it as kind of an investment bank run as everyone pulls their people and money out.
when your modern economy (which is really just about 1s and 0s getting transferred over the wire) gets completely shut down, bad shit happens.
trust me. it's not just about the lolcats and facebook status updates. this is bad, bad, bad.
m3mnoch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Life doesn't stop when the Internet stops. Things just change. It will be bad for some, but new chances for others...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
uh... okay.
m3mnoch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm sure this is a splendid test case for Government and it's burning desire for control over the internet.
I think the US would be far more robust to be honest.
I agree 100% Lisae, it's not nearly as 'critical' as some might think. Perhaps critical to the business of some companies, but for people in general - it's about as critical as TV.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If the US government were to install and use such a "killswitch", I'd say the majority of people affected would be outside the USA. And then the US government would have a battle on two fronts, inside and outside of the border.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
At 6:45 in that video that came from Snake Bytes TV.
You think people who like to watch snakes bitting others would have some nice things to say about politicians.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cutting net might have been a big mistake.
Sure, by cutting communications they might have made it a tiny bit harder for the really motivated people to organize big protests, but as it is now they have people on the streets that would never have gone if they could get news and reports in the safety of their own homes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In a country the size of Egypt (about 1.4 times larger than Texas total) having 4 major ISPs plus minor players is damn good. That is for a population only 10 times the size of New York city proper (or about 4 times that of New York State completely). That is very good coverage. They also have multiple peering connections to Italy, to France into Africa, and sit in the middle of the Euro - Asian main trunk.
There is nothing centralized here. I understand that you are trying to frame this in a way to use against the "internet stop button" concept in the US, but can you please at least try to be somewhat honest about it? The information in this post is just not accurate at all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The Internet: Where it isn't possible to just be mistaken about something; you also have to be a liar with an agenda.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Apparently someone didn't read my post about how there is no such internet stop button concept in the US.
Try reading next time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pic I did for B3ta on this subject
http://www.b3tards.com/u/97f0808388c56fda73dd/button.jpg
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If the US can get the internet declared as a right then it makes it impossible to have three strikes you are kicked of the internet policy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm pretty sure it will make quite a few hackers think about de-centralized mesh network technologies, and start implementing them.
The game of whack-a-mole continues. Get your popcorn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
First hand knowledge
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All the eggs...
I realized today that the downfall of cable packages puts individuals in a similar situation. The cable goes out and you realize you have no phones, no internet, and no tv. Luckily my cellphone is from a different company but what if I had Verizon for all 4 means of communication?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: All the eggs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]