Just a friendly heads-up that everyone should help spread the word for people in Egypt (and anywhere else with blocked/censored Internet) to download and start using AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield as soon as possible. I've even started using it here in the States for maximum online security.
Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
11–20 of 143 posts
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#12This is the infowar at close range. Contrary to the gut reaction of most commenting on the unfolding of events in Egypt, the reason for the regime to shut down communications has little to do with stopping information to reach the outside world. It is information getting into the country that is of real danger to them, such as the AP video of a man getting shot today. They are shutting down the Internet (As confirmed…
Also, to keep the demonstrators from coordinating with each other. The late and unlamented Tunisian dictatorship was messing with Facebook because the Tunisian demonstrators (at least some of them) were using it. And at least one of the organizing factions behind the Egyptian demonstrations started out the same way, as a Facebook group: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12290167
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#13Also phones, SMS and Blackberry, http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/1/28/phones-disrupted-sms-a...
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's how dictatorship work and why they often fail. You just can't keep this stuff working for ever. Egypt's dictatorship gov has managed to last this long which is impressive.
It's amazing what US funding can do for a government, isn't it?
That is true. Not many people know that after Israel, Egypt is the second largest beneficiary of US foreign aid money.
But I find it hard to judge the decision of the US gov when that deal was cut considering it's been 40 years. And support for the Egyptian communist gov goes back to Eisenhower.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#15I'm always a little skeptical of these reports (having spent time in China and having had the internet not go down when everyone claimed there was going to be TianAnMen 2 or something) so I tried to do a little digging and the following egyptian websites are completely blacked from outside of Egypt out as of 4PM PST: http://www.cbe.org.eg/ http://www.toyotaegypt.com.eg/ http://www.egypo.gov.eg/ http://icdlegypt.gov.e…
I had the same experience with hotels, internet in China: much better access from internet in a hotel than others were saying.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#16In Tunisia, it's not Internet that made the revolution success, but SMS. First, everyone has a mobile phone (even the poor). Second, you receive the message and read it instantly wherever you are. (You should guess it, few people here have smart phones). Third, there is more commitment that you go to the street. For those interested in the Tunisian revolution: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12302232 I think t…
SMS were cut off prior to Internet. All Telecomm is expected to be down by tomorrow - coinciding with an expected 1M protesters on the streets. Crackdown will be violent.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's amazing what US funding can do for a government, isn't it?
That is true. Not many people know that after Israel, Egypt is the second largest beneficiary of US foreign aid money. But I find it hard to judge the decision of the US gov when that deal was cut considering it's been 40 years. And support for the Egyptian communist gov goes back to Eisenhower.
Egypt gets $1.5 Billion per year. No pocket change.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#18I read this, and become more concerned about bills to give the US President an Internet kill-switch. They say it's to protect against cyber-warfare, but something makes me think it's just as likely to be applied to civil unrest, and civil unrest doesn't usually happen unless there's something pretty wrong with the government.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#19This is the infowar at close range. Contrary to the gut reaction of most commenting on the unfolding of events in Egypt, the reason for the regime to shut down communications has little to do with stopping information to reach the outside world. It is information getting into the country that is of real danger to them, such as the AP video of a man getting shot today. They are shutting down the Internet (As confirmed…
> because a video like that can be like pouring gasoline on a fire. The question is who gave them the right to starve the fire? The internet is merely communication. If you can't deal with your populace communicating, even in a troubled time then you're already at your death-knell. The danger here is that if the government steps in to tell me I'm not allowed to show someone a video of an abuse of power, then I'm goin…
I'd say Iran managed to show that brutal repression can be pretty damned effective at propping up a regime that couldn't survive the free flow of ideas.
Re: Egypt has shut off the Internet (update: not everywhere)
#20Apparently a large number of autonomous systems are not announcing their prefixes[1], so there's no route for some Egyptian networks.
There's also a small thread on NANOG mailing list in which a user acknowledges the fact that he cannot access a server in Cairo[2].
[1]: http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450 (by @atoonk on twitter)
[2]: http://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2011-January/031315...
EDIT: formating
EDIT2: grammar, I think everything is passable now