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More Trouble Expected When Egypt Comes Back Online
schliz writes "Net activists at Telecomix are preparing darknets, encryption, proxies and VPNs to protect Egyptians' online freedom when the Government-imposed Internet blackout ends. Today, Telecomix regarded Egypt as being on "the same level as North Korea and Burma in internet censorship" amid rumours that Egyptian phone lines were to be shut down. Analysts and the Internet Society have also warned of technical and business difficulties to come — including BGP churn and commercial fears of doing business in Egypt."
Who's all in favor of modifying the constitutions of every Western country to read:
"Any attempt by government to in any way censor or limit or shut down the Internet will lead to immediate execution of said members of the Executive and Legislature by having their heads repeatedly smashed in by a circa-1995 Cisco router."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I have a feeling we'll need one in the US very soon (sometime this decade).
TOR: Congress prepares to follow Egypt with internet kill switch
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/246707,egyptians-turn-to-tor-to-organise-dissent-online.aspx
"Appelbaum, a high-profile associate of the Wikileaks whistleblowers' site, said the "irony was rich" in how the US Government that supported the pro-democracy protesters treated him on his return to the country and the experiences of an Egyptian democracy activist who was harassed on his return to Egypt as revealed in a Wikileaks cable."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I just one of our national stations have flow their news people to Egypt and set up a studio broadcasting live from the place and interviewing people on the street.
Seems any attempt at blocking anything has long since failed . And the military are just look on, they are on the side of the protesters.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Because they can control the people by force? It's not like you often have a choice. The Egyptian people are like people everywhere. Their first concern is the wellbeing of their families and themselves. You have El Presidente basically saying "I will hurt you and those you love if you dare rise against me", and then demonstrate it every once in a while, well, people learn to keep their heads down.
Revolutions happen when that culture of fear breaks down, usually because at some point people see that the Emperor has no clothes. In the Arab states, what seems to have happened is that an already weak regime in Tunisia collapsed with relative ease, and a whole bunch of other Arabs in other states suddenly realized that maybe it wasn't THAT dangerous to throw out the dictators. Once that's been broken, once the idea of the state as this all-powerful entity no longer holds true, that's the end of the story.
We saw it in Tunisia with Ben Ali, and we're seeing it with Mubarak. It's almost laughably ironic that Mubarak is going through the same contortions Ben Ali did just a few weeks ago. Now it's reported he'll announce that he won't run again in September, just like Ben Ali seemed to open the way for meaningful rivals for the presidency in the final days. But the time has come and gone for that, and now that the army has signaled that it's sitting this one out (other than to maintain a degree of law and order so the whole thing doesn't collapse into anarchy, which it seemed poised to do a couple of days ago), Mubarak has damned few cards left. "I promise to go real soon" is the final death rattle of a regime that no longer has the strength to hold itself erect. I suspect Mubarak is trying that as much to keep the Americans and Europeans happy with dreams of a "peaceful transfer" (read: keep the Muslim Brotherhood out) as anything else.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
How can you possibly run a business in a place where the government might shut off a crucial resource at any time?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How do you propose the Amish get there? Horse-drawn jetliner?
They just used up their monthly data caps. They will be here in the next billing cycle.
An AT&T spokesman said.
Dear Egypt,
All IP addresses previously assigned to you have been revoked and given to others, since you apparently don't want them anymore.
Thank you for helping us with the dwindling supply of IPv4 addresses.
Sincerely,
ARIN