Posts Tagged ‘Egypt’

Syria Shuts Down the Internet As Revolt Gains Steam

Published by pratyushkp on June 4th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

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Internet traffic has come to a halt in Syria after the government blocked Internet services in an attempt to quell a growing revolt in the Middle Eastern nation.

“Starting at 3:35 UTC today, approximately two thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet,” Internet intelligence firm Renesys reported on its blog today.

“Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table.”

Most mobile phone and Internet networks are affected by the blackout. According to The Wall Street Journal, government-run websites such as the Oil Ministry’s website are still operational.

Syria has been banning social media services in the last few months, but this is the full time there has been a widespread Internet outage.

The move comes as protests have intensified in the troubled nation. 34 people were killed Friday after security forces opened fire. The uprising, which began in late January, has been focused on ousting Bashar Al-Assad from his role as President of Syria. Al-Assad ascended to the presidency in 2000 after his father’s 29-year rule.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak shut down Internet services during the Egyptian revolution so protesters couldn’t easily organize. It didn’t quell the revolt though, and on February 11, Mubarak resigned.

Source:- http://mashable.com

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The Social Media Buzz Behind the Royal Wedding

Published by pratyushkp on April 29th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

With hours to go until the Royal Wedding, online buzz surrounding the big event has surpassed the chatter that surrounded the Egypt uprising and the Japan earthquake.

New stats gathered and analyzed by Webtrends reveal that the world simply can’t stop talking about the Royal Wedding (not that you needed us to tell you). According to the web analytics company, people have sent 911,000 tweets in the last 30 days, or just a little more than 30,000 tweets per day, which accounts for 71% of the buzz Webtrends tracked. For comparison, there were approximately 217,000 Facebook status updates and 145,000 blog posts about William and Kate’s big day.

And while you may think most of the social buzz surrounding the royal nuptials is coming from the U.K., think again. Webtrends says that a whopping 65% of tweets, blog posts and Facebook updates are coming from the U.S., while 20% are coming from the UK. Canada is in third place with a mere 2.6% of social media buzz. This matches stats from Nielsen, which also says that the U.S. is the #1 source of Royal Wedding chatter.

Check out the infographic if you want to see the rest of the Royal Wedding stats:

Note: this infographic is split into two parts.

Source : http://mashable.com
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Facebook, Twitter Push Hazare’s Lokpal Bill Fight Facebook, Twitter Push Hazare’s Lokpal Bill Fight

Published by pratyushkp on April 7th, 2011 - in Social

Over 1,00,000 followers on Facebook; over 7 lakh people express their solidarity through phone lines

Satyagraha finds its way onto new media, after Facebook, Twitter and SMS added teeth to social activist Anna Hazare‘s crusade against corruption. Hazare’s protest involves him fasting until death till the government agrees to table the Lokpal Bill, which puts corrupt politicians to accountability and scrutiny by an independent body. In practically no time, the Facebook page of Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement garnered over 1,00,000 followers.

The campaign for Lokpal Bill spread onto Twitter as well in the form of janlokpal account, in addition to many celebrity accounts taking up cudgels on Hazare’s behalf. Additionally, group SMSes urging people to ping 022-61550789 to express their support for the cause were sent out by anti-corruption campaigners. A whopping 7 lakh missed calls were recorded, which is a good indicator public anger against the scourge.

Hopefully, Facebook and Twitter will prove to be the same catalyst that they turned out in the Egypt protests.

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Facebook – The face of Egypt’s revolution!!!

Published by pratyushkp on February 23rd, 2011 - in Social, Technology

An Egyptian father has proudly named his daughter “facebook”. According to Al-Ahram(one of the most popular newspapers in Egypt), he did so in tribute to the role the social media service played in organizing the protests in Tahrir Square and beyond.

Wael Ghonim, “We Are Khaled Said” Facebook page showed up within 5 days of Said’s death in June and served as a hub for dissidence against Egyptian police brutality and anti-government protests until Mubarak’s resignation. Other activist pages like “Tahrir Square” cropped up shortly afterward. There are five million Facebook users in Egypt, more so than any other country in the Middle East/North Africa region. Facebook itself has reported an increase in Egyptian users in the past month, with 32,000 Facebook groups and 14,000 pages created in the two weeks after January 25th .

Facebook has become the umbrella symbol for how social media can spread the message of freedom. There was a graffiti in Cairo that said “Thank you Facebook” as a protest sign and Wael Ghonim himself personally expressed his gratitude to Mark Zuckerberg on CNN.

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  • Subtitled Video of Wael Ghonim’s Emotional TV Interview (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
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