Twitter BLOCKED In Egypt As Demonstrations Turn Violent

As protestors fill Egypt in rare public demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak, Twitter has been blocked, according to reports.

Tweets @ircpresident

TWITTER IS BLOCKED IN EGYPT

According to TechCrunch, third party servers are still being used to tweet within the country, many using the #Jan25 hashtag.

As Foreign Policy is reporting, Facebook is still being used to help organize and broadcast the protests as well, largely on the page "We Are All Khaled Said." Says FP:

This year, the protesters, inspired by events in Tunisia and outraged by the death last year of Khalid Said, a young man brutally tortured and killed by police in Alexandria, organized themselves on Facebook and called for a "day of anger" across the country.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates, and follow live updates on the protests here.

Comments

[Balzac]

05:09 AM on 01/26/2011

President Mubarak seems to be a pretty good leader, as far as I can tell. He would be well-advis­ed to review the case of Khaled Said. Last year, Khaled Said, was murdered by police.

According to Associated Press, Khaled was killed “after he posted a video on the Internet of officers sharing the spoils from a drug bust among themselves­”.

They beat him to death and then refused to investigat­e. There is a problem with police brutality in Egypt. We also have this problem in the USA.

I find it difficult to imagine a leader of a nation in that part of the world who would be able to free his country from that kind of authoritar­ian violence. All that can be done is to serve justice as much as possible within a culture which is somewhat brutal already.

Not all of this can be blamed on President Mubarak. Arab men have to admit, many of them have a taste for revenge. It's not as if Hosni Mubarak is the source of all the violence in Egypt. It is just the nature of politics that the rage will be directed towards him.

[Twosret Twosret]

12:39 AM on 01/26/2011

what people don't understand is that the protesters didn't clash with police. The police attacked protesters. It was a very civlized and peaceful protest. The people of Egypt spoke and said enough of 30 years of dictatorship and tyranny. Enough of poverty and unemployment and terrorizing Egyptian citizens under the emergency law for the past 29 years!

[DigitalHalawa]

09:19 PM on 01/25/2011

You can use Twitter via this proxy: http://3.ly/Twitter25Jan | http://3.ly/TwitterEgypt | http://3.ly/TwitEgy

[lovemycivicduty]

07:37 PM on 01/25/2011

The question is: Do these uprisings bring into you a sense of satisfaction or disappointment? Are these people oppressed, or spoiled? It depends on how you experience the framing of the story. Similarly, here in the U.S. we have Democrats and Republicans framing arguments differently, and people lean toward one side or the other depending on numerous factors (mostly how they have experienced these concepts growing up). I empathize with these people, as I do with other young (I am 30) people in the U.S. who are trying to work through the continued degradation of our Democratic Republic, the freedoms it supposedly protects, and the justice that is supposedly our aim. Justice, this word has become loaded, as we now use justice to break into homes and spy on people without a warrant or probable cause...among other things. I do not think a revolution will solve our problems...we are too divided. It would largely pit us against ourselves. I also don't foresee another solution that can go up against the force that our "new justice" is willing to use to protect itself. We are already starting to demonize those who would dare qestion our system, who would dare desire and work toward overcoming the inequalities and unethical behavior that runs our economy and government. Whether we want it or not, it is coming to America soon. I, for one, will be both apprehensive yet determined to make my grievances known; for I have heard freedom calling so long.

[Paul Coellar Rios]

03:51 PM on 01/25/2011

I’ve heard that Vodafone in Egypt is denying it has blocked Twitter. It says there is a problem in the country and it is dealing with it!

PC
http://workerscomppayasyougo.com/

[Daniel Bruno Sanz]

03:14 PM on 01/25/2011

Huffington Post: I am in Cairo now. Contact me if you want me to write a story.

[SomeGuy4]

04:01 PM on 01/25/2011

HP would be s_tupid not to.

[Daniel Bruno Sanz]

01:52 AM on 01/26/2011

HP still hasnt contacted me.

The local papers reported Mubarak as calling it sedition. There's a rumor that Mubarak's son, groomed to inherit the presidency from his octogenarian father, has fled the country. Everyone I meet feels they cant make ends meet and hates Mubarak. This government's days a very numbered. Can you reach anyone at Huffpo and tell them contact me? Im in Cairo at [phone] Daniel

[Daniel Bruno Sanz]

01:55 AM on 01/26/2011

HP still hasnt contacted me.

Can you reach anyone at Huffpo and tell them contact me? Im in Cairo at [phone] Daniel