Google Teams Up With Twitter And SayNow To Bring Tweeting-By-Phone To Egypt. Twitter Declares, "The Tweets Must Flow" While protests rage on in Egypt, Twitter called for free expression and transparency in a manifesto published on its blog. Co-written by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and the company's General Counsel and former Google lawyer Alexander Macgillivray, the post casts Twitter as a trustworthy messenger, relaying information between hundreds of millions of users, and only refusing to do so if such messages are illegal or spam. With more than 100 million separate messages transmitted each day, the company says it would be impossible to monitor each and every one. In addition, Twitter vows to refrain from revealing private information about its users, and when it is required to do so by law, it will attempt to notify those users before handing over their information to the authorities.
Meanwhile, Twitter communication is nearly a moot point in Egypt, where there were some reports of cellphone service returning, but Internet service was still shut down today, according to The New York Times. How Egyptians Used Twitter During the January Crisis [INFOGRAPHIC] In Light of Egypt's Internet Block, U.S. "Kill Switch Bill" Raises Eyebrows. Hint: If you're going to suggest legislation that gives the government an option to take control over certain online information systems, don't announce it at the same time a corrupt foreign regime shuts down the Internet.
Apparently nobody so advised Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who on Friday told Wired about a plan to reintroduce a bill that gives the president this authority — the day after Egypt blocked the Internet in response to increasingly violent protests against the presidency of Hosni Mubarak. The resulting article set off an uproar against what many have (perhaps unfairly) termed the "Kill Switch Bill. " Officially, the bill goes by "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010.
" And a white paper from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs insists that it would not create a "kill switch," but rather "order emergency measures for our nation's most critical infrastructure. " The same proposed legislation, which is co-sposored by Sen. Le gouvernement Egyptien a coupé Internet. Je ne sais pas si vous suivez un peu l'actu avec ce qui se passe en Egypte, mais grosso modo, le peuple égyptien emboite le pas des Tunisiens et réclame le départ de leur dictateur Mubarak.
Alors évidemment, Internet est au cœur des échanges et permet aux egyptiens, à la fois de s'informer mais aussi de montrer au reste du monde ce qui se passe dans leur pays. En réaction aux premières révoltes, le gouvernement egyptien a d'abord censuré Twitter et Facebook (un grand classique)... Puis depuis quelques heures, ils ont fait le grand plongeon, bloquant carrément l'intégralité (ou presque) des communications avec l'extérieur. A certains endroits, comme le rapport 20 minutes, le téléphone fixe est bloqué et les téléphones portables (selon les opérateurs) semble aussi être coupé. Mais ce n'est pas tout ! Nombre de réseaux inaccessibles. Plus moyen de communiquer avec l'extérieur, ou d'accéder à des sites égyptiens... Une censure d'Internet encore jamais vue au niveau mondial ! [Source et photo]