Egypt Government Found 'Off' Switch For Internet

New York Times:

Epitaphs for the Mubarak government all note that the mobilizing power of the Internet was one of the Egyptian opposition's most potent weapons. But quickly lost in the swirl of revolution was the government's ferocious counterattack, a dark achievement that many had thought impossible in the age of global connectedness. In a span of minutes just after midnight on Jan. 28, a technologically advanced, densely wired country with more than 20 million people online was essentially severed from the global Internet.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Amr Abouelleil]

06:59 PM on 02/16/2011

The regime's cutting off of the internet was more than just an attempt to disrupt the protesters from organizing. It was about controlling the narrative that the Egyptian citizen heard by making the state television the only source of information about what was going on in their own country. First, they cut off the internet, then they propagated the notion that the protesters were alternately US spies, Israeli spies, Qatari spies, criminals, Muslim Brotherhood (with this the regime line was that they were ALL muslim brotherhood). Once many of the populace, manipulated by fear created by the atmosphere of instability and fed the regime propaganda, were sufficiently brainwashed, the regime turned the internet back on. To an outsider, it looked as if they were making concessions, but what actually happened is people who previously supported the revolution pre-internet shutoff, suddenly jumped onto Facebook and Twitter calling for the protesters to go home, towing the State TV line, and saying Mubarak should be allowed to leave with dignity in September. It was a divide & conquer strategy that thankfully failed. I can not tell you how depressing it was to hear relatives calling us by phone from Egypt and repeating the state TV line to us. Fear is powerful, but thank God the desire for freedom is even more so.

[tacevad]

10:26 AM on 02/16/2011

file this story under "It CAN happen here"

[rgilley]

10:05 AM on 02/16/2011

"In a span of minutes just after midnight on Jan. 28, a technologically advanced, densely wired country with more than 20 million people online was essentially severed from the global Internet. "

Does Anyone in the US Really beleive that the United States governemnt Doesn't have the very same "cutoff switch" in this country? And that the powers that be would use it just as quickly as Mubarack did? The free flow of information is the governments worst nightmare.....As is clearly shown in the case of Wkileaks and the assault now underway on Julian Assange.
A media that is not corporate controlled threatens the very foundations of an Oligarchy like the US.

[quedog]

09:55 AM on 02/16/2011

since this is a country that largely believes in science and technology
the public would be able to go around the gov after a few months if the internet was taken down
perhaps some or most of the porn would be gone be we could connect in time

the repubs would be relegated to prayer

[SamKnause]

08:25 AM on 02/16/2011

If U.S. citizens decided to start a revolution the 'k![[ switch' would be deployed before citizens could hit the streets. They would deploy the military, police, and Blackwater XE if we filled the streets with peaceful protesters.

The U.S. doesn't want its corruption and warmongering to be public knowledge.

The U.S. government is filled with hypocritical people profiting off the world's misery.

The U.S. military and police would side with our corrupt government.

[jo smith456]

08:24 AM on 02/16/2011

BEWARE:
THE US GOVT ALSO HAS SOME FORM OF "INTERNET OFF SWITCH".
AFTERALL, the US, being the owner of the "main backbone" of the Internet, already MONITORS Internet access -- be it wireless or not.
Lastly, govts will use ALL alibis/justifications -- national security, terrorism, child pornography, "fraud", drug dealing, etc., etc., etc., --- just to CONTROL the Internet.

[lastpost]

07:56 AM on 02/16/2011

“Egypt Government Found 'Off' Switch For Internet”
It’s the button marked:
“ABANDON ANY PRETENCE OF DEMOCRACY
ALL THOSE PREPARED TO PRESS THIS”

[rgilley]

10:09 AM on 02/16/2011

I'm not sure where in the world a democracy exist today. Perhaps Sweden or France. But, certainly not here in the US. We have a government chosen by the corporate elites, financed by the 2%ers who run those corporations and dedicated to a two class system where the richest people in society use the other 98% as cheap labor and dictate all aspects of their life.
An Oligarchy of the elitist has replaced our once thriving Democracy. But don't worry there's no class war going on. :)

[moutonnoir]

03:37 AM on 02/16/2011

can point to point mesh peer to peer style networking be put up quickly in urban areas?

[moutonnoir]

03:24 AM on 02/16/2011

who wrote this article.... it sounds like they are utterly shocked that communications can be severed...

how shallow do you have to be to be as breathlessly naive as this writer seems to be proud to be?

[Geelee]

03:14 AM on 02/16/2011

Our country would do the sme in a NY minute!

[rgilley]

10:11 AM on 02/16/2011

And THAT is the goal of all this new talk of internet freedom". Whenever govt says it's going to make you free from something that could wxpose it's crimes your in big trouble.

[Ishmael1]

02:25 AM on 02/16/2011

Anyone who thinks the US government can'r do the same here is merely delusional. NSA whistleblower Russell Tice has detailed a parallel National Telecommunications Traffic Control Center at Ft. Meade identical to the one A.T.&T. has in New Jersey. Mark Klein's EFF affadavit shows that ALL US internet traffic is copied and sent to the NSA for analysis with Semantic Traffic Analyzers for Deep Packet Inspection. In any worst-case scenario, overseas telecom traffic can be shut down at the oceanic cable head terminals like the Transpac Fiber Terminal in Los Osos Ca., near Morro Bay. There are, maybe, four of those locations in the entire country and carry 80% of all overseas communications. But don't believe me. I've only spent 30 years as a telecom tech specializing in fiberoptic network operations for companies like A.T.&T., Qwest, Level3 and others. If you want more information, read James Bamford's,"The Shadow Factory" and Klein's,"Wiring the Big Brother Machine" as a start.

[moutonnoir]

03:27 AM on 02/16/2011

rad post. thx for book recommendations.

NSA gets ALL internet data? how is that one at all constitutional? good to know they step on privacy that way, yet cannot detect or prevent very many 'terrorist plots' that did not involve undercover agents leading on mentally unstable people.

[Last Truth Standing]

01:58 AM on 02/16/2011

The Internet and globalization have made us incredibly more vulnerable to serious shocks of all kinds. In less than 2 decades, we've committed the entire global economy, essentially all of humanity, to this one, big, system. Everything now rides on it - all the world's activity. That makes it both the ultimate "target" and "threat". The battle for control of this ultimate strategic prize is evolving so quickly most aren't even aware it's underway:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/15-5

[moutonnoir]

03:29 AM on 02/16/2011

it has just begun to make changes... people have no idea how much more change it can bring.

in 1994 i thought it would be USA making BIG changes.. but now it is clear other places in the world need to talk openly in a large forum more badly than even our flawed system..

so far it has democratized so many things, it is not remotely clear what the short term (net 5 to 10 years even) results will be..

today a kid can essentially learn any skill on his own by the age of 10 or so... via the internet.. any skill. from audio engineer to surgeon.. with no teachers.. not to mention the direct applications the technology will eventually have to democracy.

[ObamAtomic]

01:48 AM on 02/16/2011

Egypt Government Found 'Off' Switch For Internet thanks to Americans companies,CSI and Narus
.

[Ishmael1]

02:27 AM on 02/16/2011

Yes, Narus. The SAME company that supplies the Semantic Traffic Analyzers the NSA uses to spy on ALL OF US.

[ObamAtomic]

03:33 PM on 02/16/2011

You are right.

[Sacchinftw]

12:09 AM on 02/16/2011

The Internet requires a physical medium to travel, if you cut off the medium, then you cut off the net. Why is this somehow an amazing feat??

Hell, you don't even need to cut all of the lines, just enough so that the traffic clogs itself as it tries to leave on what few lines are left...

[moutonnoir]

03:30 AM on 02/16/2011

no kidding. he turned his lack of knowledge into a 600 word essay repeating over and over the ridiculous oppinion that noone could have possibly forseen this...

[Angie Cordeiro]

11:59 PM on 02/15/2011

That's not all the governments have been 'Switching off"...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/215032/the-pyramid-code-sacred-cosmology#continuous_play=on