This just in: Facebook and Twitter are now re-blocked in Egypt. After two days of reporting on Egypt’s blocked websites, Egyptian citizens are writing in from a blaze of tear gas, firefighters, fierce police forces, flying bullets amid detainees with swords and knives.
With the social media-fueled recent uprising in nearby Tunisia fresh in the region’s memory, it’s unsurprising that the government is attempting to keep a lid on things by throttling online methods of communication.
BlackBerry’s BBM service has been noted to have been affected as well. It’s rumored that there are leaks that will suspend all the network operators tomorrow in Egypt in order to isolate its citizens. If this goes into effect, only landlines will be allowed.
And if this occurs, tomorrow may be a very violent day in Egypt. Tomorrow’s protest will be attended by the former IAEA president and Nobel peace prize winner Mohamed Elbaradei. ElBaradei returned to Cairo today following protests across the country and the mass rally in the capital on Jan. 25, which was inspired by the revolt that toppled Tunisia’s leader.
As reported by Aljazeera, Egypt’s stock market suffered a loss of 69 billion Egyptian pounds ($12 billion) in just two days of widespread protests in Egypt.
#Jan25 and #1M are the hashtags assigned to track the online protest.
Hossam, who identifies himself as a socialist journalist living in Cairo, Egypt, just confirmed our reader’s reports.
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