(Scott Nelson for The New York Times)
Around midnight on Thursday, January 26th, 5 out of 6 major internet providers (ISPs) in Egypt shut down within 20 minutes of each other. The only ISP spared was Noor Data Network, which hosts the Egyptian stock exchange. The New York Times reports that the Egyptian government also simultaneously got companies to stop all cell phone service within the country, although some service seems to have returned over the weekend.
According to Scientific American, in “How Was Egypt’s Internet Shut Off?,” this closely timed shutoff could only have come from a behind-the-scenes request from a government afraid of the local and global information-sharing efforts of a population in rebellion. How did the Egyptian government create this unprecedented shutoff of the flow of information? Vodaphone, the UK-based cell phone service provider who restarted service on Saturday, says:
We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers.
It has been clear to us that there were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities.
What do people think about this? How does this seem in light of Karine Nahon’s definition of freedom of speech as “the right to inform and to know?” Do you agree with Jim Cowie, CTO/cofounder of Rensys, who speculates that this could not happen in the U.S.?
Anyway, lest we go too far down the path of doom and gloom, I’ll leave you with a quote from Mohammed el-Nawawy, a professor of communications:
“The government has made a big mistake taking away the option at people’s fingertips,” he said. “They’re taking their frustration to the streets.”
I think that last quote is an interesting spin on all this. After all people keep claiming it is Facebook and Twitter that create the revolution, while it is only with the lack of that communication that people have taken to the street. Does our ability to instantly react and vent on social media like this actually reduce our involvement in the political process? No matter the outcome, with future study this moment in Egyptian history is likely to tell us a good deal about ourselves, information, and social movement.
Regarding the issue of freedom of speech, I could not find anything in Egypt’s constitution that guaranteed that right to its citizens. The closest right granted is the freedom of opinion in Article 47:
“Freedom of opinion is guaranteed. Every individual has the right to express his opinion and to publicise it verbally or in writing or by photography or by other means within the limits of the law. Self-criticism and constructive criticism is the guarantee for the safety of the national structure.”
The Egyptian government getting companies to cut off service seems to prevent Egyptians from exercising this constitutional right, but the language “within the limits of the law” is vague.
Interesting! It seems like there’s always an “escape hatch.”
In this country it’s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917, which is the law I’ve heard the government intends to prosecute Julian Assange with.
Meanwhile, an interesting development is that Google is teaming up with Twitter and another company called SayNow to allow Egyptians to “tweet” using landlines: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/world/middleeast/02twitter.html?ref=technology
Here below is a post from Wired with a nice graphic showing the drop in all Internet activity besides the Noor Group ISP. Pretty drastic drop! I cannot find where, but I thought I read somewhere that ISPs in Egypt agree with the government in their contract to shut down when asked. Please let me know if anybody has read that too.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/egypt-isp-shutdown/