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Tens of Thousands Protest In Cairo, Twitter Blocked
Haffner writes "Protests in Cairo, Egypt have now reached the tens of thousands. Police have deployed water cannons and tear gas. I am writing this live from Cairo, where I witnessed a throng of 1000-3000 march towards Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. I also witnessed 300-500 protesting on one of the bridges heading downtown. Most importantly, twitter has been blocked by many national carriers."
Why Twitter?
As reader pinkushun writes "Using Twitter and Facebook, the people instigated a series of fast-moving, rapidly shifting demos across half a dozen or more Egyptian cities. The police could not keep up – and predictably, resorted to violence. Sadly this has led to three known deaths thus far."
Update: 01/26 02:05 GMT by T : Jake Appelbaum is tweeting up a storm about the state of the active filters.
Man, I know some people didn't like the Matrix sequels, but this is RIDICULOUS.
As if a simple review of the title was so hard...
but what are they protesting? I didn't see it in the first link.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
The blood of patriots and tyrants waters the Tree of Liberty. It is its natural fertilizer.
- Jefferson
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The linked story talks about the reasons for the protest in Cairo (namely, wanting the current president of 29 years out, and wanting the 29-year "state of emergency" and corresponding suspension of rights to stop). The summary here just talks about the actions taken against the protesters, and the blocking of Twitter.
OK riot police are coming out.
Probably the fact that Mubarak has been effectively a dictator for the past few decades, with elections rigged to where he is the only true candidate and voting is monitored by thugs. The main opposition force in Egypt during Mubarak's reign, the Muslim Brotherhood, has had many of its leaders and some supporters arrested, killed, or run out of the country. On top of this, Mubarak is getting pretty old, and it is expected that he will not run in many more elections. So, essentially, the government is in a weakened and uncertain state, and many Egyptians see the chance for a real chance of democracy, instead of Mubarak simply naming his successor who would then run the country for another couple decades.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Egypt today, see 01:20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWr6MypZ-JU
wonder if wikileaks was the proverbial flap of a butterfly's wing??
That's the thing about technology - it serves all masters.
The two forces at play in Egypt are Mubarak's official regime on one side and Muslim Brotherhood on another side. FWIW it's a choice between a rock and a hard place. Muslim brotherhood is your garden variety Islamic hard-liners who will no doubt build an oppressive society if ever in charge. Mubarak's regime is already oppressive. So, while the sides scuffle - there is little to expect externally except, perhaps, a more extremist regime should Mubarak fail.
Then there was a significant peace proposal from Egypt in the early 1970s to Israel and diplomatic reach to the US. This was ignored, probably to everyone's eventual detriment. Egypt began arming, while Israel was full of some hubris due to its 1967 military victory. In 1973 Egypt sent its forces to regain the Sinai and Israel did very badly, the US had to bail out Israel to a large extent. This started the OPEC oil embargo, if anyone is old enough to remember the long gas lines in the 1970s in the US.
At Camp David, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty. Egypt turned from the USSR to the USA, and has been getting about $2 billion a year from the US up until a few years ago. Usually $700 million or more of that was economic aid up until a few years ago. In 2009, economic aid went down to $200 million or so. On top of those cuts, Egypt has been hit by the world economic slowdown as well. It is also under a ruthless dictatorship that the annual $1.3 billion in US military economic aid helps prop up. How many of the 9/11 hijackers were Egyptian? A number of them - and the cleric who was behind the first WTC bombing was Egyptian as well. Many Egyptians have been unhappy with the US meddling in the country for years - and recently, that $700 million in economic aid has been cut to almost nothing just as their economy began feeling the global economic slowdown.
... are worth a shit (and render instant mobs (whatever else you call it) inunstantiable).
BTW, this reminds me of a Sci-Fi which focused on the idea of instant teleportation to places of interest ((think reality-TV) & (the 'problems' around)). Hints welcome.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
They are everywhere
Let us hope they don't hand their freshly toppled governments over to the muftis and imams.
FWIW, some of the pundits were wondering aloud whether the Tunisian 'revolt' was going to spread throughout the region.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Most importantly, twitter has been blocked by many national carriers."
Those are some pretty odd priorities. I would have thought "tens of thousands protesting" is a little more important than some online service being blocked.
News just in: Asteroid about to impact Earth, extinction event imminent, but more disturbingly, I can't log in to Slashdot!"
... and then they built the supercollider.
I wish all Egyptians high spirits and success in the struggle for a free country!
Why link to the coverage from a state sponsored newspaper? Al-Ahram is the same one that photoshopped Hosmi Mubarak's picture at the peace talks - can't seem to paste a link, google "al ahram photoshop".
They want food, water, freedom, justice, no corruptions, a set of rights that gov. can not take away, an education, freedom from Mubarak's prison, etc.
Basically, the usual.
Windbourne (moderating).
Egypt is one of the countries that still routinely tortures people. So these people really need anonymity.
http://www.torproject.org/ -- I use Tor most of the time. But it's terribly slow, there are few out-nodes.
The best I have thought of is a prepaid cellphone, or any phone not in your name. I think it would be correct to try to put it in the name of someone important to make sure someone else is not punished instead of you, and make sure not to use it with any of your personal data, like making and receiving calls to your friends and family with it, and logging into your personal accounts with it. You also will need to get a different phone from your own, as the operator records the phone's IMEI as well as the GSM chip number and phone number. Taking the battery out before you get near your home with the phone is a good idea too. If you think you have legal cover to be able to run Tor as an EXIT node, it would be helpful to people in Egypt today to have more exit nodes.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Don't forget Bitcoin, it allows for anonymous untraceable donations which cannot be "frozen" under governmental pressure.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. - Hunter S. Thompson
Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come round again. That's why they're called revolutions.
- Pratchett
In all seriousness, the only reason the American Revolution worked out so well was because we had the enormous good fortune of A) having no nearby powers to take advantage and B) having technology at just the right point where we could win the war without having to deal with endless terrorist attacks afterward.
It is no longer possible for an armed rebellion to end well. Technology has seen to it that armed rebellions don't end at all.
Sure Egypt will have a real democracy in a day or two. Like the Hamas in Gaza. I am no supporter of the Arab regimes but it is much more likely that we will end up with some kind of Muslim dictatorship.
And then, so do the people!
Federation is good - check out Identi.ca
The thinking-man's tweeker, if anyone who actually thinks uses any of those services.
Only if it's part of a horde of a billion butterflies.
Those who blame Wikileaks for being irresponsible, even criminal, for their release of supposedly confidential information should look at the way social networks and other sites and Internet services facilitate activities that could lead to people getting injured or even killed. If Wikileaks deserved to be banned, then so should Facebook and Twitter, for these sites would, arguably, be doing harm by making it easier for the stain of information to spread.
Which sounds like we need a technical solution. Anybody got wikitweet?
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Some latin american countries seem to be going the same way, unfortunately.
Chavez is the extreme example with the possibility of unlimited elections.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
Aren't political wonks just as much nerds as the gadget/internet enthusiasts? Nerds come in many stripes.
I'd say so; geekyness or whatever you call it can be partially defined by an obsessive enthusiasm that can manifest itself across many topics.
I find myself to be a geek about most of the things I do; does the attitude flow over into other geeks' nontechnical interests as well?
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I suppose by now any wanna-be authoritarian would realize that it's probably not the greatest idea. As Doug Stanhope says, "If that's the only thing that gets you through your day, fine. Do it. Keep me out of it."
Rise, Egypt. I'm with you. Whatever dog-shit that counts for.
Anyone who thinks this is a triumph for democracy is a fool.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the inspiration for the modern day Islamic Fanatic, will be the only winner here. It's been know for years that the MB holds sway in the majority of Egyptian public opinion and would win any open Egyptian election. And given the stance of the MB's on the existence of Israel, coupled with the current events along Israel's border, with both Hamas and Hezbollah fully re-armed from Iranian sponsors, expect a another war to break out in the Middle East, with Egyptian nods of approval.
Oh, and what about the Copts? Although their treatment under the current Egyptian dictatorship has been deplorable, expect worse, if not barbaric.
Hamas is not a Muslim dictatorship, it's a Muslim democracy. Sure, they will still kill you if you disagree with them on some important points, but they will actually have the support of the majority of the population in doing so.
Unfortunately wireless carriers were disabling phone use across the board.
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
put to good use here. The US stands with you Mubarak.
The main opposition force in Egypt during Mubarak's reign, the Muslim Brotherhood [...] and many Egyptians see the chance for a real chance of democracy
Yeah that worked out so well for Iran...
If the people want an Islamist party, let them vote for one in a fair election. The risk is that an Islamist party may be or might become undemocratic, leading to "one person, one vote, one time". Not that this would differ greatly from the current situation where opposition parties and candidates are brutally excluded from any possibility of obtaining power.
Autocracy is not inevitible under Islamist rule, of course: Turkey remains democratic, and the electorate there can eject the Islamists at the next election if they want.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/01/wikileaks-reveal-what-made-tunisians-revolt.html
Interesting that Qaddafi directly blames Wikileaks for the Tunisian revolt:
In a Jan. 17 televised address, Qaddafi denounced the mass upheaval in Tunisia as a Western plot. He implicated WikiLeaks as a product of "lying ambassadors in order to create chaos."... "Qaddafi railed against WikiLeaks because he, too, wants to blame something other than the power of the people. ... His speech to Tunisians could be summarized thus: I am scared witless by what happened in your country.""
There is no such thing as unblockable communication. Yet, people are quite good on organizing mobs even on blockable communications. What you are missing is that the government must block all suceptible channels all the time to make the mob uninstantiable (hey, you've made me look on a dictionary!).
Rethinking email
Many of the Arab states that had their maps drawn by white westerners weren't states (as we use the term) until those maps were drawn.
It is a testament to the durability of bureaucracies that even though those "nations" have been self-governing for some time, they haven't altered their borders to reflect the social boundaries that exist. Sudan is only recently coming to the point where it can consider changing its borders, and that only through armed violence.
You know what countries had their map drawn by "westerners", let's see: Yugoslavia. And it actually led to genocide just like in Sudan. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make rendom borders after all.
I run a Tor exit node, and I'll soon add another.
It's totally safe for me to say that, because nobody knows where! MUAHAHAHA! >:)
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
America develops instant, free, global text communication and we use it to pay attention to insane sexy peoples (celebrities). Other people to use it to outfox governments and enact earth-shaking social change. WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG?!
The whole internet is blocked in Egypt !
What a government...
http://www.3news.co.nz/Egypt-internet-access-blocked--reports/tabid/417/articleID/196288/Default.aspx