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Egypt's big disconnect | Andrew McLaughlin | Comment is free | The Guardian - 1 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...t-uncensored-cutoff-disconnect #jan25 Egypt protests authoritarianism censorship technology internet
shared by Ed Webb on 05 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • The internet cutoff shows how the details of infrastructure matter. Despite having no large-scale or centralised censorship apparatus, Egypt was still able to shut down its communications in a matter of minutes. This was possible because Egypt permitted only three wireless carriers to operate, and required all internet service providers (ISPs) to funnel their traffic through a handful of international links. Confronted with mass demonstrations and fearful about a populace able to organise itself, the government had to order fewer than a dozen companies to shut down their networks and disconnect their routers from the global internet.
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Algeria to lift emergency powers - Africa - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20112315364175524.html Egypt #jan25 protests Algeria authoritarianism censorship
shared by Ed Webb on 05 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Algeria's 19-year state of emergency will be lifted in the "very near future", state media has quoted Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president, as saying.During a meeting with ministers on Thursday, the president also said Algerian television and radio, which are controlled by the state, should give airtime to all political parties.He added that protest marches, banned under the state of emergency, would be permitted across the country of 35 million except in the capital. His comments come as anti-government protests escalate in Egypt and follows a wave of similar uprisings in other Arab states including Tunisia and Yemen
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What Al Jazeera Shows and Doesn't Show | The Middle East Channel - 2 views

mideast.foreignpolicy.com/...jazeera_shows_and_doesn_t_show media Egypt jazeera al-jazeera analysis #jan25 protests
shared by Ed Webb on 04 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 04 Feb 11
     
    Important
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The Syrians are watching - Features - Al Jazeera English - 2 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2011129132243891877.html Syria Egypt protests #jan25 internet socialmedia facebook censorship
shared by Ed Webb on 03 Feb 11 - No Cached
  •  text messages buzzed between mobiles in quick succession, drawing woops of joy and thumbs up from astonished Syrians
  • "Perhaps the Saudis will have to build a whole village for Arab presidents once they run out of villas," joked a taxi driver
  • the usual babble of conversation was subdued as customers sat quietly but intently watching the TV broadcasting images of flames pouring from Egypt's ruling party's head office, a Soviet-era building much like many of those that house the state institutions in their own capital
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • now people are simply looking for their personal freedom, for food, education, a good life. The days of ideology are over
  • Syria's state-run media quoted some news reports from Cairo, but offered no comment or analysis on the situation. By Saturday morning life had returned to normal with few signs, on the surface at least, that the authorities were concerned about potential unrest. Socialising by proxy Online, however, it was a different story. Internet users reported a significant slowdown in the web, with searches for news on Egypt often crashing browsers. Heavy user traffic could be an explanation but in Syria, where thousands of websites deemed opposed to state interests are blocked and where Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media are banned, authorities denied accusations they had restricted the service to prevent citizens hearing about events in Cairo.
  • authorities banned programmes that allow access to Facebook Chat from mobile phones, a cheap and easy means of staying in touch that had exploded in popularity among young Syrians
  • surfing the web at an internet cafe
  • thousands of young Syrians adept at using proxy servers to get around the official ban on Faceboo
  • President Bashar al-Assad, who opened Syria up to the internet when he succeeded his late father in 2000, has his own Facebook page
  • All across Damascus, symbols of a burgeoning middle class are spreading, from a sleek sandstone shopping mall, home to Costa Coffee and a bright new art gallery, to the Lebanese banks opening sparkling new branches for the first time. But as the young doctor put it, looking up at the cameras inside the internet cafe: "Everything here is under control, even if it looks open."
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Robert Fisk: Secular and devout. Rich and poor. They marched together with one goal - R... - 1 views

www.independent.co.uk/...her-with-one-goal-2201504.html Egypt protests #jan25 islamophobia US USA opinion analysis fisk
shared by Ed Webb on 03 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • There were several elements about this unprecedented political event that stood out. First was the secularism of the whole affair. Women in chadors and niqabs and scarves walked happily beside girls with long hair flowing over their shoulders, students next to imams and men with beards that would have made Bin Laden jealous. The poor in torn sandals and the rich in business suits, squeezed into this shouting mass, an amalgam of the real Egypt hitherto divided by class and regime-encouraged envy. They had done the impossible – or so they thought – and, in a way, they had already won their social revolution.
  • There I was, back on the intersection behind the Egyptian Museum where only five days ago – it feels like five months – I choked on tear gas as Mubarak's police thugs, the baltigi, the drug addict ex-prisoner cops, were slipped through the lines of state security policemen to beat, bludgeon and smash the heads and faces of the unarmed demonstrators, who eventually threw them all out of Tahrir Square and made it the Egyptian uprising. Back then, we heard no Western support for these brave men and women. Nor did we hear it yesterday.
  • They supported democracy. We supported "stability", "moderation", "restraint", "firm" leadership (Saddam Hussein-lite) soft "reform" and obedient Muslims.
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  • what were the Americans doing? Rumour: US diplomats were on their way to Egypt to negotiate between a future President Suleiman and opposition groups. Rumour: extra Marines were being drafted into Egypt to defend the US embassy from attack. Fact: Obama finally told Mubarak to go. Fact: a further evacuation of US families from the Marriott Hotel in Cairo, escorted by Egyptian troops and cops, heading for the airport, fleeing from a people who could so easily be their friends.
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BBC News - Egypt protests: Army rules out the use of force - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-middle-east-12330169 Egypt Mumbarek Jan25
shared by Neil Devoe on 01 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Meanwhile, new Vice President Omar Suleiman said Mr Mubarak had asked him to open dialogue with all political parties on constitutional reform.
  • In its statement, carried on Egyptian media, the military said: "To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people... have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people."
  • The US state department has despatched a special envoy to Cairo, former ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, to urge Egyptian leaders to embrace political change.
    • Neil Devoe
      Neil Devoe on 01 Feb 11
       
      This seems like quite a shift in supporting the Egyptian people over Mumbarek, especially in comparison to Hilary Clinton's original comments about supporting the "stable government" that Mumbarek led. Hopefully, Wisner can help influence a change to a new form of Egyptian democracy.
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  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned against the takeover of Egypt by "an organised Islamic group" as had happened in Iran.
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Al Jazeera English Blacked Out Across Most Of U.S. - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...zeera-english-us_n_816030.html jazeera aljazeera US USA media
shared by Ed Webb on 31 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • I think if anything the Obama administration has indicated to Al Jazeera that it sees us as part of the solution, not part of the problem
  • "It is downright un-American to still refuse to carry it," wrote Jeff Jarvis on Sunday. "Vital, world-changing news is occurring in the Middle East and no one-not the xenophobic or celebrity-obsessed or cut-to-the-bone American media-can bring the perspective, insight, and on-the-scene reporting Al Jazeera English can."
  • Al Jazeera is the scourge of authoritarian governments around the Middle East, which attempt to block it. The network, however, covers much more than the Middle East, and now has more bureaus in Latin America than CNN and the BBC, said Burman. "As proud as we are of our Middle Eastern coverage, we are in other places in the world that are never, never seen on television in American homes," he said.
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Al-Azhar sheikh says protesting forbidden in Islam - Bikya Masr - 0 views

bikyamasr.com/wordpress fatwas Islam Egypt #jan25 media religion protests
shared by Ed Webb on 31 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Al-Azhar is the most influential Islamic institution in the country, however, in recent years it has become more in line with the government and most Egyptians have ignored fatwas that have been released
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It's Not Twitter or Facebook, It's the Power of the Network: Tech News and An... - 2 views

gigaom.com/...twitter-facebook-egypt-tunisia media internet Egypt Tunisia #jan25 #sidibouzid networks networking
shared by Ed Webb on 30 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 30 Jan 11
     
    Worth reading and thinking about. A reasonable argument.
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