Egyptian Government’s Crackdown On Communication Medium Condemned Globally
January 29th, 2011 - 8:55 pm ICT by GDBy Ranjan Bhaduri
Jan 29, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The crackdown on Internet and mobile telephony in Egypt continue amidst countrywide protests and growing civil unrest. In cities like Suez, Alexandria and Cairo curfew is in effect and anti riot police have warned the citizens not to congregate in public places and stage protests. Despite the hardliner stance adopted by the administration the political analysts are saying this could be the beginning of the end for the Hosni Mubarak government which has been accused of gross human rights violation and corruption. The unprecedented crackdown on mobile telephony and web services in the trouble torn country has drawn the government brickbats from the political leaders from other nations and tech industry.
The human rights group all over the world have lashed out at the Egypt government for blocking out Internet almost totally for the residents. Internet traffic monitoring companies like Renesys and Cedexis have said that more than 95 percent Internet traffic from Egypt has stopped in last 24 hours. Renesys Co founder James Cowie said “In an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet”. While top 4 operators including Etisalat Misr and Telecom Egypt went off air only Noor Group remained functional said the Internet traffic watchdogs.
Mobile services in Egypt suddenly hit a rough patch and users complained about errors in messaging and unprecedented network drops. These are aimed at thwarting the assembling of the protesters who were suing Internet and mobile service to keep in touch. Vodafone admitted receiving instructions from the government to block service in trouble prone areas.
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- Egyptian govt. exploited national infrastructure to cripple Internet: Experts - Feb 16, 2011
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- Egypt unrest: Mubarak fires cabinet as Obama intervenes (Roundup) - Jan 29, 2011
- Unrest swells in Egypt as cornered government bans Al-Jazeera (Roundup) - Jan 30, 2011
Tags: brickbats, civil unrest, communication medium, egypt government, egyptian government, etisalat misr, hosni mubarak, human rights group, human rights violation, international connections, internet traffic, james cowie, mobile telephony, political analysts, prone areas, riot police, rough patch, stage protests, telecom egypt, traffic monitoring