Egypt shuts down the Internet

In case you haven't heard, there is a bit of a revolution happening across the globe. Tunisia was successful in their revolution and now Egyptians are protesting. People have been communicating via the Internet to organize protests and get the word out. Now, the Egyptian authorities have essentially shut down the Internet in an attempt to censor the people that it is supposed to serve. People were even removing the passwords from their WiFi networks to allow protesters to communicate with each other and the world. Obviously this all ties in with what was discussed in class with offensive images and censorship.

People are now starting to gather in Jordan in protest of the government. Syria has already shut down Internet access, probably as a preemptive measure before people get too organized. This is the power of the Internet.

Did you think "Well, that's in Egypt, who cares?" Guess what, it could happen here too. In the US, a bill was introduced allowing the president to basically shut down the Internet in the US. Please also consider that in Canada there are only four corporations controlling ALL your data: Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw. Other ISPs are just resellers using the big guys' lines (and with usage based billing that they pushed the smaller ISPs can no longer be competitive, but that's another thing you should be angry about.) Do you really trust your information in the hands of these corporations?

Internet: Serious business.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8288163/How-Egypt-shut-down-the-internet.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/28/egypt-just-turned-of.html