Egyptian uprising

taviow

taviow

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Reports are emerging that Internet has gone down in Cairo and perhaps throughout Egypt, only hours before the largest planned protests yet.

According to a report from The Arabist, "Egypt has shut off the internet."

Multiple Internet Service Providers are affected according to the report, which states:

I just received a call from a friend in Cairo (I won't say who it is now because he's a prominent activist) telling me neither his DSL nor his USB internet service is working. I've just checked with two other friends in different parts of Cairo and their internet is not working either.
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Source.
 
Wow, learned the lessons of Iran - shut down the internet before it can be used to aid protesters...
 
So like, three friends of mine can't connect to the internet. The Government shut it down. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER EXPLANATION.


Imagine how funny my post would be if the blackout wasn't confirmed by other sources. It would have been pretty funny, right?
 
Krynn72 said:
So like, three friends of mine can't connect to the internet. The Government shut it down. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER EXPLANATION.


Imagine how funny my post would be if the blackout wasn't confirmed by other sources. It would have been pretty funny, right?
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No.

It would not.
 
I'm gonna tell Egypt that you called them all baboons. You can't just tell someone their joke wasn't funny in the internet and expect to keep privilege of internet access.
 
Krynn, there has been huge protests in Egypt recently organized largely through twitter and facebook. In the last few days social sites have been shut down one by one. It is the government doing it because they're goddamn terrified. It isn't jumping to conclusions, it's going off the evidence.
 
As far as I'm aware a few people have been killed in these protests haven't they? It's not vastly surprising, in that light, that such a response has been given by the government.
 
ríomhaire said:
Krynn, there has been huge protests in Egypt recently organized largely through twitter and facebook. In the last few days social sites have been shut down one by one. It is the government doing it because they're goddamn terrified. It isn't jumping to conclusions, it's going off the evidence.
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Yeah, I know. I just found it funny that the writer of the article found that 3 people was evidence enough to make the assumption that the govt shut everything down.
 
Stylo said:
As far as I'm aware a few people have been killed in these protests haven't they? It's not vastly surprising, in that light, that such a response has been given by the government.
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A few people have been killed by government security forces. There are videos online of protesters being randomly shot and murdered by the police and of those water cannon trucks literally running protesters over. The government is having "such a response" because it's an authoritarian regime that doesn't give its people the basic human rights they deserve and they're scared because the people are angry and encouraged by the results in Tunisia to overthrow the government.

The government blocked Twitter and Facebook a couple days ago, and shut down mobile wireless internet in Cairo yesterday or the day before. Today it seems that ALL internet is down in Cairo, because people and businesses that lived in the area of the protest were unblocking/un-passwording their wireless routers so that protesters could still access the internet and coordinate.

The situation is only getting worse, I hope the demonstrators don't just get massacred a la Tiananmen... they are fighting for a good cause against a corrupt dictatorship.
 
Hope the outcome of all this is more Velvet Revolution and less Iranian Revolution.
 
Just heard some police have joined the crowd after getting rid of their uniforms. The military has been unleashed.
If all of the people protest, what're they gonna do, kill'm all? ****in dictators.
 
If the military is ordered to kill indiscriminately, it won't be long before they find they're being ordered to kill their own friends and family.
 
I don't think we do... but do we have any members who live in Egypt?
 
This is what happens when a government becomes corrupt. You get a bunch of people rioting and protesting in the streets. Taking away the Internet from the Egyptians is only going to make matters worse.

Under the Emergency Law, the Egyptians already have limited freedom in what they say. Now, they can't even talk online with their friends. I think porn is the least of their worries although I'm sure they miss it.
 
Al Jazeera has had excellent coverage on the revolution (too early to call it that yet?) the past few days.
 
If the South ever decides to revolt here in America, and my internet gets shut down, I'm going to join the North's army just out of spite. If I lived in Egypt, I'd go out and join in the revolution just because I was pissed that I couldn't read my infos on the nets.
 
Is it really that easy to shut down the Internet, I always believed that it would be a little harder than ordering ISP's to turn off after all the stuff that got out of Iran?
 
Ennui said:
A few people have been killed by government security forces. There are videos online of protesters being randomly shot and murdered by the police and of those water cannon trucks literally running protesters over. The government is having "such a response" because it's an authoritarian regime that doesn't give its people the basic human rights they deserve and they're scared because the people are angry and encouraged by the results in Tunisia to overthrow the government.

The government blocked Twitter and Facebook a couple days ago, and shut down mobile wireless internet in Cairo yesterday or the day before. Today it seems that ALL internet is down in Cairo, because people and businesses that lived in the area of the protest were unblocking/un-passwording their wireless routers so that protesters could still access the internet and coordinate.

The situation is only getting worse, I hope the demonstrators don't just get massacred a la Tiananmen... they are fighting for a good cause against a corrupt dictatorship.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should have specified. I'm not surprised that the Egyptian Government shut down the internet in response. I'm not condemning the protesters or backing the government's decision in any way shape or form.
 
Am I the only one who thought about this:

Madagascar-ShutDownEverything.jpg
 
Heh, I was just thinking the other day (a mental exercise of sorts) what I'd do if I were the adviser to the Egyptian dictator.

I'd prolly shut down the internet, as a priority, and then shut down running water, gas, fuel, electricity, most radio stations and blame it on protesters. Let them know why they need us, you see? Probably would use tear gas in large quantities too, etc., etc.

And then probably shoot the damn guy because he's an idiot.
 
In America, if the internet were to shut down, hundreds if not thousands of people would die from rioting
 
I would happily demonstrate and riot if need be if the US government shut down the internet. That's an extreme violation of freedom of speech.

It was not difficult to shut down the internet - the Egyptian government merely told all of the local ISPs to shut down their border gateway protocol routes (BGPs) which are basically internet "doorways" in and out of Egypt. 88% of Egyptian internet traffic has been cut off; only one ISP (the 12%) remains working and that is because it handles Egyptian stock exchange stuff so they can't really shut it down without risking extreme damage to the economy.
 
The situation is a rather strange one atm. The police has mostly withdrawn from Cairo's streets, and the military is doing nothing to stop the protesters. Looks like Mubarak has lost control over the armed forces.
 
I read in one of the British newspapers today that the death toll had reached about 89. A small part of me withered inside.
 
No Limit said:
But Numbers, that would be illegal. And since it's illegal it is also wrong.
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Ah well, one day we will pay for all the things that we have done, and all the things that we should have done.
 
Yeah, but today the important thing is to follow the law at all times no matter what.
 
Nobody probably missed me, but I haven't been posting here the last couple of days because I am traveling through the Middle-East at the moment. I am currently in Jordan and it is quite extraordinary to follow the news in Egypt here. Everybody is glued to their televisions to watch Al Jazeera or one of the other Arab news stations. The hotel I am staying now has a couple of Egyptian staffers and they start yelling, cursing and spitting every time president Mubarak is on TV.

There have been some protests here in Jordan as well, but it is all very small scale compared to what is happening in Egypt. The other difference is that the protests in Jordan are aimed exclusively at the cabinet. King Abdullah II is still held in very high esteem by most Jordanians and he is very powerful. He can basically install a new cabinet if he pleases, so if the protests get more massive, that is probably what he will do.

If anything does happen here I will give you guys a report, but I am crossing the border to Israel either tomorrow or Wednesday, so I will be out of the loop until I return to Jordan at the end of this / beginning of next week.
 
keep safe shaker. if you dont report back in a few days we'll assume you've joined the resistance/converted to terrorism
 
What are you doing traveling through the middle east? Only terrorists do that.
 
And this is how we learned that Shaker is a covert government operative hunting down Osama Bin Laden. God speed Shaker, god speed.
 
Anyone else find it ironic that the only thread on the forums that is about this revolt concerns the lack of internet?
 
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