egypt

On January 27, the Egyptian government sought to combat growing public unrest by disconnecting the Internet and mobile phone services--the thinking being that protesters couldn't organize if they couldn't communicate. Ignoring for the moment the fact that there have been protests since long before the Net, this is still a significant and historical action. Previously, Iran and Tunisia have sought to quell protests with similar policies and actions, but the Egyptian example is perhaps the largest and most heavy-handed communications shut-down the modern world has seen.

Our guests for today's discussion are Declan McCullagh, our own political reporter; and Deborah Wheeler, a political science professor who spent the last 10 years in the Middle East studying how social technologies impact politics. Author of The Internet in the Middle East, she teaches as visiting professor at the American University of Kuwait. She is also a professor at one of the U.S. service academies, but the views expressed here are her own.

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Some of our discussion points… Read more

Egypt's unprecedented Internet disconnection has now lasted 24 hours without signs of ending.

At this time yesterday, one by one, the country's electronic links to the outside world fell silent. It started at 2:12 p.m. PT with the mostly state-owned Telecom Egypt disabling its networks, with four smaller network providers following suit between 2:13 p.m. PT and 2:25 p.m. PT.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appeared on state television at approximately 2:15 p.m. PT today to announce that he would sack his cabinet but would not resign--an indication that no end … Read more

See, the problem with alien communication fragmentation is that the aliens will have a hard time finding us. The real question, though, is whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Also, we ponder whether we need a new rule about how no, you cannot turn off the Internet because of your inter-border protest issues ... EGYPT. Plus, LinkedIn goes IPO, Amazon is killing it, and the world is introduced to the CataPot. --Molly

If you are at a computer and you're not riveted by the Al Jazeera live video coverage of the protests in Egypt, you should be.

The images are fascinating to watch. Protesters--calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak--are seen ignoring curfew, running through the streets, clashing with tear gas-wielding police, and setting buildings on fire.

While the region's popular satellite channel broadcasts live footage of the events, a nearly countrywide clampdown on the Internet means there are few trickles from people on the ground via blogs and Twitter.

Mohamed Nanabhay, the head of Al Jazeera English online, … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

The Internet goes nearly silent in Egypt during widespread violent political protests

News Corp. announces plans to launch The Daily, its iPad-only publication

Gmail offers a new feature to give you a pop-up every time you get an e-mail or an instant message

The new version of Skype for Mac has a group chatting option

Hulu may be planning to rebrand itself as the Internet's cable channel

Apple may be prepping to launch a new lineup of MacBook Pros

LinkedIn has filed for an IPO

Editor's note: This story was updated many times as the story evolved Friday. Please see updates below and click here for a more recent story on the situation.

Egypt has gone offline.

In a stunning development unprecedented in the modern history of the Internet, a country of more than 80 million people has found itself almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the world.

The near-disconnection--at least one Internet provider is still online--comes after days of street protests demanding an end to nearly three decades of autocratic rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Those followed this month's revolution in … Read more

Amid a third day of anti-government protests, Internet outages and disruptions occurred today in Egypt.

Facebook and Twitter confirmed the disruptions for their sites.

"We are aware of reports of disruption to service and have seen a drop in traffic from Egypt this morning," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "You may want to visit Herdict.org, a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University that offers insight into what users around the world are experiencing in terms of web accessibility."

According to Herdict.org, there were 459 inaccessible sites … Read more

The DOJ is sniffing around again on the topic of mandatory data retention for ISPs: our advice? If this is their canary in the coal mine, kill the canary. Not cool. Also, will the Facebook phone be huge? I say yes, Tong is skeptical. Android developer interest is nearly equal to their interest in iOS, plenty of Android tablet news, and I give the Sony Dash the full Touch My Body. --Molly

Social media has ingrained itself so thoroughly as an instrument of activist organization that it's targeted by many an authoritarian government seeking to quell an uprising. This week, as protests descended upon the Egyptian capital of Cairo, Twitter confirmed that it had been blocked in the North African country. On Wednesday, rumors began to spread that Egypt was trying to block Facebook as well--especially since it appears that a Facebook "event" page had been how many of the protesters found out about the gathering.

Not quite. "We are aware of reports of disruption to service but … Read more