More Trouble Expected When Egypt Comes Back Online 175
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."
A Straw Vote! (Score:4, Insightful)
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."
Does it matter? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:What'a a darknet? (Score:4, Insightful)
"What's a darknet? I have a feeling we'll need one in the US very soon"
Typical. You don't know what it is but it sounds cool so we need one. Right.
Re:Loss of power (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:What'a a darknet? (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no way the Egyptians will accept half measures from Mubarak at this point, and I doubt Mubarak is foolish enough to think they will.
Mubarak is trying to buy time while he empties out his bank accounts and hides his loot. He'll be headed to Saudi Arabia before the week is out.
Re:You'd think a business would be scared (Score:5, Insightful)
How do American companies function every day? The company that I am working for is actually losing business because our clients do not want to store their data on our servers here in the United States. Everyone is concerned about the PATRIOT Act and the power it gives the government to compel disclosure of what should be private and confidential data. Although it is not exactly the same as being shut down, it goes to show that the effects of government policy are not just related to dictators in African countries.
Re:A Straw Vote! (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting. And when did you first know that you could tell the future?
On the day we learned to study the past.
Re:A Straw Vote! (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a difference between a revolution (which you seem to be advocating) which replaces the goverment, and enshrining circumvention of due process and political murder into an existing constitution.
People in glass houses should refrain from throwing stones.