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2011 Egyptian media censorship
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On January 25 and 26, 2011, Twitter was blocked in Egypt due to the 2011 Egyptian protests,[1] and Facebook was later blocked as well.[2]
On January 27, various reports claimed that access to the Internet in the entire country had been shut down.[3] The authorities responsible achieved this by shutting down the country's official Domain Name System, in an attempt to stop mobilisation for anti-government protests.[4] Later reports stated that almost all BGP announcements out of the country had been withdrawn, almost completely disconnecting the country from the global Internet, with only a single major provider, Noor Data Networks, remaining up.[5][6][7]
ISPs down
The New Hampshire (United States)-based network security firm Renesys reported that the five major Egyptian service providers--Telecom Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Link Egypt, Etisalat Misr, and Internet Egypt--all went dark one after the other between 22:12 and 22:25 UTC (12:12-12:25 a.m. Friday 28 January Cairo time). As a result, approximately 93% of all Egyptian networks were unreachable as of late afternoon.[7] The shutdown happened within the space of a few tens of minutes, not instantaneously, which Renesys interpreted as companies receiving phone calls one at a time, ordering them to shutdown access, rather than an automated system taking all providers down at once.[7]
Analysis by BGPMon[8] showed that only 26 BGP routes of the registered 2903 routes to Egyptian networks remained active after the blackout was first noticed; this is an estimate of 88% of the whole Egyptian network disconnected. RIPE NCC has two graphs of routing activity from Egypt, announcements/withdrawals and available prefixes, including a snapshot of activity during the shutdown.[9]
Noor not blocked
The Noor Advanced Technologies[10] network initially appeared to be unaffected by the block.[11] Noor provides services to "large, multi-national companies like Coca-Cola, Canon, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, FedEx, and Exxon Mobil",[11] ministers, banks, 5-star hotels, the Cairo Stock Exchange and American University in Cairo[12]. Routes to the Noor network started to be withdrawn 20:46 UTC January 31.
Free modem access
Internet service providers such as the French Data Network (FDN) provided free (zero-cost) dial-up access to Egyptians with landline (analogue) international telephone access. FDN provided the service as a matter of principle, to "contribute to the freedom of expression of the Egyptian people and allow them to keep a connection with the rest of the world."[11]
Beginning on the first day of protests the Egyptian government censored most of the media outlets inside Egypt and took measures to block social media websites[13] which had helped protesters to spread news about the events on the ground. On 27 January, it was reported that the government had blocked text messaging and BlackBerry messaging services.[14] Starting just after midnight local time on the night of 27/28 January[15] the Egyptian government almost entirely cut off Internet access[15][16][17] in an act of unprecedented[15][16] Internet censorship. Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses were unreachable, worldwide.[18][19] In response, Egyptians, with the help of assorted hacktivists worldwide,[20] circumvented the restrictions by variously using the Tor anonymity network,[21] smartphones as modems, land lines with dial-up modems to make international calls to access the internet, fax machines in universities and embassies, and even ham radio.[22] After Egypt's last functional internet service provider, Noor Data Networks, finally went offline,[23] the internet activist group Telecomix rated Egyptian internet access on par with that of North Korea and Burma.[24]
On 1 February, Google and Twitter launched the so-called speak-to-tweet system that allows people caught up in the unrest to post messages, without any need to use an internet connection, by dialing an international telephone number and leaving a voicemail message. The message is then sent out as a tweet with the hashtag of the #state, where the call came from.[25] Twitter was used by a large number of users outside Egypt for up-to-the-minute commentary on the situation and several news sources provided real-time coverage. But few people from inside the country use Twitter (there are only 14,000 Twitter users in Egypt, according to the social media firm Sysomos.[26]). Twitter has set up a new account @twitterglobalpr to talk specifically about Egypt's use of the tool[27] after it was blocked on 25 January.[28]
Beginning on the first day of protests the Egyptian government censored most of the media outlets inside Egypt and took measures to block social media websites[13] which had helped protesters to spread news about the events on the ground. On 27 January, it was reported that the government had blocked text messaging and BlackBerry messaging services.[14] Starting just after midnight local time on the night of 27/28 January[15] the Egyptian government almost entirely cut off Internet access[15][16][29] in an act of unprecedented[15][16] Internet censorship. Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses were unreachable, worldwide.[30][31] In response, Egyptians, with the help of assorted hacktivists worldwide,[32] circumvented the restrictions by variously using the Tor anonymity network,[33] smartphones as modems, land lines with dial-up modems to make international calls to access the internet, fax machines in universities and embassies, and even ham radio.[34] After Egypt's last functional internet service provider, Noor Data Networks, finally went offline,[35] the internet activist group Telecomix rated Egyptian internet access on par with that of North Korea and Burma.[36]
On 1 February, Google and Twitter launched the so-called speak-to-tweet system that allows people caught up in the unrest to post messages, without any need to use an internet connection, by dialing an international telephone number and leaving a voicemail message. The message is then sent out as a tweet with the hashtag of the #state, where the call came from.[37] Twitter was used by a large number of users outside Egypt for up-to-the-minute commentary on the situation and several news sources provided real-time coverage. But few people from inside the country use Twitter (there are only 14,000 Twitter users in Egypt, according to the social media firm Sysomos.[38]). Twitter has set up a new account @twitterglobalpr to talk specifically about Egypt's use of the tool[39] after it was blocked on 25 January.[40]
External links
Citation
- ↑ TechCrunch: Twitter blocked in Egypt
- ↑ Wall Street Journal, Egypt Communications Cut Ahead Of Further Protests
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/egypt-internet-goes-down-_n_815156.html
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12306041
- ↑ Christopher Williams. How Egypt shut down the internet. Daily Telegraph.
- ↑ Internet in Egypt offline. bgpmon.net.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Cowie, James Egypt Leaves the Internet. Renesys. Archived from source 28 January 2011. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=450
- ↑ routing activity in Egypt
- ↑ About us – NOOR – Empowering the realities of life.. Noor Advanced Technologies. Archived from source 2011-01-31. URL accessed on 2011-01-31.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Albanesius, Chloe (2011-01-31). "Egypt Turns to Sole Provider, Dial-Up for Internet Access". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on 2011-01-31. http://www.webcitation.org/5w9e3qolv. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
</li>
- ↑ Egypt's Net on Life Support. Renesys.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Kessler, Sarah. Facebook & Twitter Both Blocked in Egypt. Mashable. URL accessed on 27 January 2011.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Rao, Leena. BlackBerry Internet Service Reportedly Blocked In Egypt. Techcrunch. URL accessed on 27 January 2011.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Cowie, James Egypt Leaves the Internet. Renesys. Archived from source 28 January 2011. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Kirk, Jeremy (28 January 2011). "With Wired Internet Locked, Egypt Looks to the Sky". IDG News (via PC World). Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5w518Yu9B. Retrieved 28 January 2011. </li>
- ↑ Egypt: AP Confirms Government has Disrupted Internet Service. pomed.org. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ Kanalley, Craig. Egypt's Internet Shut Down, According to Reports. The Huffington Post. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ "Egyptian Internet Shut-Down Video". renesys.com.
- ↑ Anonymous Internet Users Help Egypt Communicate. News.yahoo.com. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Recent events in Egypt blog on Tor. Blog.torproject.org. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Egypt Without Internet. Cfnews13.com. URL accessed on 1 February 2011.
- ↑ Zmijewski, Earl Egypt's Net on Life Support - Renesys Blog. Renesys.com. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Tay, Liz More trouble for Egypt when the lights flick back on. Itnews.com.au. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ speak2tweet at Twitter
Translations of some calls are posted at alive in egypt- ↑ Egyptian Crisis: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted. URL accessed on 31 January 2011.
- ↑ Twitter Blocked in Egypt. URL accessed on 31 January 2011.
- ↑ Twitter
- ↑ Egypt: AP Confirms Government has Disrupted Internet Service. pomed.org. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ Kanalley, Craig. Egypt's Internet Shut Down, According to Reports. The Huffington Post. URL accessed on 28 January 2011.
- ↑ "Egyptian Internet Shut-Down Video". renesys.com.
- ↑ Anonymous Internet Users Help Egypt Communicate. News.yahoo.com. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Recent events in Egypt blog on Tor. Blog.torproject.org. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Egypt Without Internet. Cfnews13.com. URL accessed on 1 February 2011.
- ↑ Zmijewski, Earl Egypt's Net on Life Support - Renesys Blog. Renesys.com. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ Tay, Liz More trouble for Egypt when the lights flick back on. Itnews.com.au. URL accessed on 2011-02-02.
- ↑ speak2tweet at Twitter
Translations of some calls are posted at alive in egypt- ↑ Egyptian Crisis: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted. URL accessed on 31 January 2011.
- ↑ Twitter Blocked in Egypt. URL accessed on 31 January 2011.
- ↑ Twitter
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