Egypt – Social media has been buzzing in the wake of news that Egyptian authorities have once again cracked down on internet freedoms. According to local sources, Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulation Authority (NTRA) has disabled access to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services including Whats App, Skype and Viber. The ban also appears to have also effected online gaming abilities as well. This past week the people of Egypt have reached out the world and #savetheinternet has become Egypt’s top trending hashtag on twitter.
In a statement to the Middle East News Agency on Monday, as expected, the NTRA denied allegations of wrongdoing stating that and such actions “would have to come from the service providers.” However, representatives from each of Egypt’s three largest service providers have publicly confirmed that the NTRA did indeed issue a declaration notifying the companies to disable Skype usage. Technically it is true, the service providers themselves are the ones with the infrastructure to take down the service. But understand, these companies are only doing so under order of the government. Everyone sees through the lies and manipulation of the NTRA.
Offering some insight into the ban, communication expert and acting manager of Infralayer, Ahmed Medhat stated the actions are indicative of the governments desire to “block whatever they can not monitor.” Going on to say “this move might be based on national security concerns, as terrorist organizations have become increasingly tech-savvy and use communication systems that are more secure and less easily tracked.” On the bright side, Mr. Medhat added “the ban will likely push ordinary Egyptian citizens to become more technologically educated as well and find a way to bypass the ban. The way I see it, six months from this ban, we’ll see a huge leap toward technology education.” I urge the people of Anonymous to work together and help the people of Egypt achieve this in the coming weeks/months.
What is perhaps most disturbing about this internet crack down is that this is not the first time this has happened to Egypt. In 2010 then President Hosni Mubarak and the NTRA issued a ban on mobile calls made through Internet-based services such as Skype. The regime then went on to enact laws dictating that all international calls pass through state-owned (government operated) Egypt Telecom services. It was the oppressive regime of Mubarak which led directly the the 2011 revolution of Egypt. A revolution which was created and spread in large part through the use of various social medias.
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Hello, that nut was carrying a police scanner.