6:48M EST: [UPDATES BELOW] The social site Twitter is abuzz at this moment with reports that Egypt has shut down the Internet in the country. Reports claim that it was shut immediately following an Associated Press report which showed footage of a policemen killing a protester.
This has not yet been confirmed by any news source as of this posting, but hundreds of people on Twitter are claiming that there has in fact been an Internet blackout.
CNN reporter Ben Wedeman confirmed Internet is down in Cairo and writes on Twitter, “No internet, no SMS, what is next? Mobile phones and land lines? So much for stability. #Jan25 #Egypt”
One person tweeted: “On the phone with a friend in Cairo. Mobile works but she confirms no Internet access at all.”
Another wrote: “Apparently The Entire Internet is down in Egypt, or at least greater Cairo–all local ISPs offline.”
Yesterday it was reported that Twitter and Facebook had been blocked, prompting U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton to publicly call on the Egyptian Government to allow access to social media sites.
On Thursday the Los Angeles Times reported that that Blackberry service had been blocked in Egypt.
YWN will keep our readers as soon as this is confirmed by any major news agency.
UPDATE 7:00PM EST: The Associated Press is reporting that “a major service provider for Egypt, Italy-based Seabone, reported early Friday that there was no Internet traffic going into or out of the country after 12:30 a.m. local time. Associated Press reporters in Cairo were also experiencing outages. Messages abounded on Facebook and Twitter from users outside of the country.
UPDATE 7:03PM EST: Reuters is now reporting that there are major Internet outages as well.
(Dov Gordon – YWN)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
15 Responses
Remember this is something Obama would love to do here to silence his critics – which would be about 60% of the USA.
TO: mark levin
I don’t generally intend to be impolite, but your comment is one of the most ridiculous, and irrelevant comments I’ve seen on this website in a long time. Your obnoxious comment is completely unrelated to any of the content in the above article.
to #2 hallel
I generally disagree with Levin (with a multitude of complaints)
but in this case i think he has a point, and even more so i heard this very same point made on WABC.
I think you should tone down your insulting language.
i intend to be impolite – it has everything to do with it
2, I don’t take offense when being insulted by an obvious liberal. So much for civility. You gotta love it!
You OBVIOUSLY don’t pay attention to the news.
There is a lot of focus on what the Egyption is doing, but do realize what the outcome of a successful overthrowing would mean. It would mean an extremist islamic state. It is possible, though, that there calls for freedom by this administration are just for show.
I can see Obama doing this over here. He’s a liberal, like all liberals he wants to control us and shut down the people who oppose him.
#2 I have to agree with u
No its not, Obama wants an internet switch.
Let’s just be civil
Espcially all the liberalarians
TO mark levin,
Prejudice against all liberals is ridiculous. Some right wingers happen to be much worse than liberals (ie the Nazis would be considered right wing); I hope you don’t embrace them for their “being conservative.”
Secondly, I happen not to be an Obama fan at all. It’s absurd however when people tie everything negative to Obama, just as it’s ludicrous that some blamed Sarah Palin for Giffords getting shot.
Not everything must be tied into Obama; while I don’t support him, I don’t think he’s “out to get all of us” and take away our freedoms.
To #2 (Halelujah)
#1’s comment is actually completely related to the content in the above article as the article was about the Egyptian government controlling the internet usage in their country and the comment was about the American Liberal government, (who pride themselves on being pro-choice) headed by Obama, who want to take away the people’s choice and control internet usage. You will never hear about this if you follow mainstream liberal media.
And your disagreement with a viewpoint does not render it “unrelated”.
It is a most unfortunate practice for people to hide behind silly names when expressing opinions here and other places in cyberworld. As a general rule I would no more answer the comments, especially the insults, of an anonymous writer than I would answer the insults of someone yelling at me from inside a garbage can.
Unless you are a political dissident in a country where your views could lead to your being jailed or killed, there is no good reason to hide your identity. Come out of the garbage can and let us see your face.
Aryeh Zelasko
Beit Shemesh
To # 11
All arguments aside, you are making a mistake with the Nazis, as they were actually LEFT wingers.
So what do you call the “internet switch?” Certainly it would be the antithesis of freedom!
Checkmate!