A world with no internet

With the chaos going on in Egypt and Tunisia right now, there is a massive number of articles reporting on the events taking place. One in particular stuck out. I knew that governments had some degree of control over the internet and the flow of information. China in particular has made headlines with blocking websites or intercepting people's e-mails. That in itself is terrifying. In Canada we are all accustomed to having free access to the internet, we are free to share ideas via e-mail even if they are questionable. The idea that you could try to Google something and the results page be blank is scary.

The Egyptian government managed to turn off the internet in about 20 minutes, limiting the ability of people to communicate with others and the global community. This move is unprecedented and has sparked concern from the global community. The motives of the government in doing this wasn't clearly identified due to what was going on. WikiLeaks Egypt was scheduled to be released that day (fears that it would increase the protests), the government could have been trying to prevent the protests from escalating as they have in Tunisia.

The swiftness of the shut-down indicates that the government contacted each internet provider to get them to shut off their services.  There was collusion going on between the companies and the government. I still have to wonder how that discussion went and how the government managed to convince all the companies to comply with their demands.

People were resourceful by using Smartphones or even dial-up connections to get their message out following the shut-off. It's pretty incredible. Clearly the government was scared of the power of social media to help people organize themselves and protest the government regime.

It will be interesting to see how the situation in Egypt and Tunisia continue to play out. While it is not ideal for change to come following violent protests, sometimes it is needed to achieve the end goal.Pulling the Plug on the Internet