For Egyptian protesters who are calling for a million people to join a general strike and mass demonstrations in the streets on Tuesday, communicating their message is key, which is why the authorities have been trying hard to shut down Internet services.
On Monday, the government shut down the country’s last operating Internet provider, Noor Group, BBC reported. Egypt’s four main Internet providers were cut off last week.
However, Google countered by launching a speak-to-tweet service to allow Egyptians without Internet to communicate with each other. Egyptians can now tweet by leaving a voicemail at one of three international phone numbers. The service will tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. The Google blog states they “hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected.”
“Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.”
The army declared on Monday that it will not use violence against citizens, affirming that “freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody,” quoted Reuters. The report continues by saying the army would not allow acts that “violate security and destroy public and private property. It warned that it would not allow outlaws and to loot, attack and ‘terrorize citizens.’”
Despite declarations of restraint, the army is deploying more tanks and personnel in the streets of Cairo—in the interest of protecting the nation and the citizens, a spokesman from the military stated according to state media.
The behavior of the army will be crucial to how things ultimately play out in Egypt, but according to Moshe Ma’oz, from the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the military is firmly in the hands of the government.
“The most important thing is what the high brass decides to do. Egypt is built on the military,” he said in an Epoch Times report on Monday.
President Hosni Mubarak has also reorganized his government in the hopes of holding on to his fragile power. Last week he installed Vice-President Omar Suleiman, indicating that he was mandated to work on constitutional reform, reported CNN on Monday.
With reporting by Gidon Belmaker
On Monday, the government shut down the country’s last operating Internet provider, Noor Group, BBC reported. Egypt’s four main Internet providers were cut off last week.
However, Google countered by launching a speak-to-tweet service to allow Egyptians without Internet to communicate with each other. Egyptians can now tweet by leaving a voicemail at one of three international phone numbers. The service will tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. The Google blog states they “hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected.”
“Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.”
Tinderbox
Protesters are calling for a 3 p.m. start to the mass strike in Cairo, at precisely the start time of the newest curfew. A day earlier the curfew had been 4 p.m. and days earlier 7 p.m. Their expressed aim is to force Mubarak to relinquish power.The army declared on Monday that it will not use violence against citizens, affirming that “freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody,” quoted Reuters. The report continues by saying the army would not allow acts that “violate security and destroy public and private property. It warned that it would not allow outlaws and to loot, attack and ‘terrorize citizens.’”
Despite declarations of restraint, the army is deploying more tanks and personnel in the streets of Cairo—in the interest of protecting the nation and the citizens, a spokesman from the military stated according to state media.
The behavior of the army will be crucial to how things ultimately play out in Egypt, but according to Moshe Ma’oz, from the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the military is firmly in the hands of the government.
“The most important thing is what the high brass decides to do. Egypt is built on the military,” he said in an Epoch Times report on Monday.
President Hosni Mubarak has also reorganized his government in the hopes of holding on to his fragile power. Last week he installed Vice-President Omar Suleiman, indicating that he was mandated to work on constitutional reform, reported CNN on Monday.
With reporting by Gidon Belmaker
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