After two days of occasional blocks of telecommunications services and Web services like Twitter and Facebook, the authorities have moved to a more radical attempt to prevent demonstrations planned on Friday: they simply cut off access to the Internet throughout the country. Shortly after midnight, many witnesses have reported that Internet access was blocked.
According to data assembled by the computer security company Arbor Networks, all Internet access providers Egyptians cut their services on Friday morning. This is a historic first: until now, no regime had used a total blockage of the Internet in response to events. During the demonstrations that followed the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, the authorities carried out mass blockades and ordered service interruptions of services targeted geographically, but had not ordered a cut in service throughout the country .
NO "RED BUTTON" Regarded as "Internet enemies" by Reporters Without Borders, Egypt proceeded for years in legal and police harassment of bloggers and Internet denouncing corruption or policies of the Mubarak regime. But unlike Tunisia, Egypt had not set up filtering systems to Web sites or services.
A policy that has changed with the onset of major events in January: the authorities have in turn blocked temporarily services like Twitter or Facebook. On Thursday, the city of Suez, the scene of violent protests yesterday, was almost entirely cut off from the world, with very strong perturbations in access to the Internet but also mobile and fixed networks.
According to many witnesses in the country, SMS are also blocked on Friday. Disturbances are also reported in the mobile and fixed location, without a complete blockage has apparently been put in place. "Block the Web in countries which exercise significant control over service providers is not difficult, because these companies that operate cable systems usually depend on government licenses," said Craig Labovitz, Chief Scientist for Arbor Networks.
"There is no big red button, just a phone call passed to a dozen key people." Egypt has four main providers of Internet access: Link Egypt, Vodafone / Raya Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr. All depend on the license provided to them by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Egypt. 
According to data assembled by the computer security company Arbor Networks, all Internet access providers Egyptians cut their services on Friday morning. This is a historic first: until now, no regime had used a total blockage of the Internet in response to events. During the demonstrations that followed the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, the authorities carried out mass blockades and ordered service interruptions of services targeted geographically, but had not ordered a cut in service throughout the country .
NO "RED BUTTON" Regarded as "Internet enemies" by Reporters Without Borders, Egypt proceeded for years in legal and police harassment of bloggers and Internet denouncing corruption or policies of the Mubarak regime. But unlike Tunisia, Egypt had not set up filtering systems to Web sites or services.
A policy that has changed with the onset of major events in January: the authorities have in turn blocked temporarily services like Twitter or Facebook. On Thursday, the city of Suez, the scene of violent protests yesterday, was almost entirely cut off from the world, with very strong perturbations in access to the Internet but also mobile and fixed networks.
According to many witnesses in the country, SMS are also blocked on Friday. Disturbances are also reported in the mobile and fixed location, without a complete blockage has apparently been put in place. "Block the Web in countries which exercise significant control over service providers is not difficult, because these companies that operate cable systems usually depend on government licenses," said Craig Labovitz, Chief Scientist for Arbor Networks.
"There is no big red button, just a phone call passed to a dozen key people." Egypt has four main providers of Internet access: Link Egypt, Vodafone / Raya Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr. All depend on the license provided to them by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Egypt.
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