One of the most powerful tools in the world today, which is open to everyone, is the Internet. The Egyptian authorities have simply disconnected the country from the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter etc. and also disconnected the mobile phone network.
Egypt has one of the most advanced telecommunications markets in the Middle East yet shortly after midnight a couple of days ago, internet traffic in and out of the country slumped, Facebook received "only minimal traffic from Egypt, and Google Inc said people in Egypt are unable to access Google and You Tube.
Jim Cowie, chief technology officer at Web-monitoring firm Renesys Corp, says: "It probably doesn't require flipping a switch or pulling a plug. Network engineers can log into routers and type in text that blocks service providers from sending out a signal. To shut down the Web, the government likely told network providers to "turn off" connectivity, a legal directive under Egypt's telecommunications laws.
Vodafone said it was ordered to suspend mobile-phone services in selected areas. "Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it", Vodafone explain.
So, while Egypt has opened up the telecommunications market, operators are still controlled by the authorities - in other words, they can be silenced whenever the government wants.
So, the obvious question after this is: does every country, including the UK and US, for instance, have it in their power to cut us all off from these services whenever they choose to do so?
That's a frightening thought - though I assume that in a democracy, the authorities would never do this. Come on, they wouldn't, would they? Could they?
For the answer to this, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-28/the-day-part-of-the-internet-died-egypt-goes-dark.html It's a great piece.
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