Blog #2: civil unrest in Egypt causes government to shut down internet

In response to the civil unrest and anti-government protests in Egypt, the Egyptian government shut down internet and cell phone service to the majority of it’s 80 million citizens. During a period of civil unrest in Iran last year, the Iranian government slowed internet down significantly, but Egypt’s move to stop internet access all together is definitely the largest in scope. Perhaps this was in hopes that the Egyptian citizens would have a harder time organizing protests, or communicating with each other but it doesn’t seem to be hurting their abilities to protest, as one source said, “its like closing the barn door after all the horses have fled” (washington post). The question has been, is internet access and inalienable right? In article 19 of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights it states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom . . . to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." President Obama made a statement asking the Egyptian government to return the right of internet access back to it’s citizens, and to refrain from violence, saying that “the people of Egypt have rights that are universal, that includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights and the United States will stand up them everywhere.” Next to Israel, Egypt receives the most military aid from the United States, about 1.3 billion dollars a year. Hopefully this dependency and the potentiality to hurt their relationship with the U.S. will encourage them to reform their government or to at least to give internet access and the right to peaceful protesting back to their citizens.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protests.u.s..response/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012806250.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376905,00.asp
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/28/egypts-internet-shutdown-sparks-a-communications-battle/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/technology/internet/29cutoff.html?ref=technology