Posts Tagged ‘Hosni Mubarak’

Syria Shuts Down the Internet As Revolt Gains Steam

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

Image via Wikipedia

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“Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table.”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

Related Articles
  • To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook” (techcrunch.com)
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  • Subtitled Video of Wael Ghonim’s Emotional TV Interview (thelede.blogs.nytimes.com)
Tags: Africa, Al-Ahram, Cairo, , , , , , revolution, ,
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Egypt Government Restores Internet Service

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

After a week-long shutdown

The anti-government protests against President Hosni Mubarak‘s 30 year regime have spilled onto the Internet. Aware of the journalistic role of social networking websites like Twitter played to bypass the media blackout imposed by the Iranian regime, the Egyptian government had pre-emptively blocked access to Internet throughout the country. Google responded by launching a phone service allowing users without Internet access to leave voice mails on Twitter.

The Internet shutdown served to fuel the rage of the protesters further. The Internet and SMS ban seemed futile considering the fact that the protesters swell to about quarter of a million in the streets of Cairo. In the wake of mounting pressure the Hosni Mubarak regime has resumed Internet connectivity in the country, as confirmed by Hassan Kabbani, chief executive of cellphone-service provider MobiNil. Essential banking websites, ATMs, as well as social networking platforms are accessible throughout Egypt since yesterday noon.

Unlike the unchallenged success of the social networking in its journalistic role, Egypt has evinced how easy it is to pull the plug on the Internet, especially when you have power over the ISP and the Internet backbone through the country. However, gagging the people may seem easy; it does expose the perpetrator to international pressure.

Egypt may have been able to quell the voice of the nation for a week, but shutting the Internet down doesn’t make strategic sense. After all, even with the Internet down, the protestors still found alternate means to mobilise a 250,000 strong crowd on February 1.

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Egypt_Government_Restores_Internet_Service/551-114363-643.html

Tags: Africa, , Egyptian government, , , , Hosni Mubarak protest, , Internet service provider, MobiNil, Politics of Egypt, ,
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