mubarak

Google proud of Wael Ghonim's role in Egyptian protests

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday that he's "very, very proud" of the key role that employee Wael Ghonim played in the recent Egyptian protest movement.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Schmidt addressed the topic of Ghonim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, who used Facebook and other online tools to help spark the protests in Egypt.

"They were able to use a set of technologies that included Facebook, Twitter and a number of others to really express the voice of the people," Schmidt said, according … Read more

Clinton speech pushes for Internet freedom

With freedom--both in the real world and online--much in the news lately, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech in Washington, D.C., yesterday that cautioned nations that try to block the Internet and other vital services as a way of stifling their citizens.

In her address at George Washington University on Internet freedom, Clinton pointed out that Egypt's efforts to control the protests of its citizens by cutting their lines of communication ultimately failed. Instead, people continued to protest, the government turned the Internet back on, and in the end, former President Hosni Mubarak was forced to … Read more

The 404 756: Where we stop eating your sesame mooncake (podcast)

February 11, 2011, is truly a game-changing day. Hosni Mubarak's autocratic reign in Egypt is over, it's Jennifer Aniston's birthday, MaGaga dropped her new single Born This Way, Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never 3D" is now in theaters, and New York Fashion Week has officially begun.

Last year Erin Lee and Lani Nguyen from the fashion blog SugarRockCatWalk.com joined us in the studio to report on Fashion Week, but we're tackling the runways ourselves today and apparently the hottest trend is "belted satchels"-- a fancy name for fanny packs!

Sartorial designer Diane von Furstenberg has already released a $325 version of the "hands-free bag" that fastens around the waist, but don't call it a fanny pack--international designers are trying to edit the lexicon to "bum bags," since the word "fanny" is slang in the U.K. and Australia for the female genitalia.

The French have already started calling them "le sac banane," which references the banana-shape in the pouch, but something tells me Americans already have that area covered.… Read more

Vodafone: We were forced to send pro-Mubarak texts

The Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak forced Vodafone to send out prescripted, propagandistic text messages during the country's recent unrest, the carrier said today in a statement on its Web site.

A text message by someone identified as "Vodafone" was sent to an Associated Press reporter in Egypt on Sunday appealing to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor," according to an AP report.

But Vodafone said the Egyptian government can use its emergency powers under the country's Telecommunications Act to … Read more

U.S. defended Egyptian activist's YouTube videos

U.S. State Department officials successfully pressured Google to restore a YouTube video showing torture and murder by Egypt's state police, a WikiLeaks cable reveals.

The Cairo embassy and the State Department's bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor "worked to convince Google to restore" a prominent blogger's account that was suspended in late 2007, the recently released cable says.

Nearly a year later, the same blogger contacted the State Department to report that "YouTube removed from his website two videos exposing police abuses," including a woman being tortured at a police station … Read more

Do we need the Internet for a revolution?

In the last two years I have read at least a dozen books that champion the Internet as the key to personal and political freedom. Scholars and academics have come to see digital communication as a near messiah in power and prescience.

However, I believe that the current revolution in Egypt should temper our faith in the Internet.

The Egyptian government has cut off the digital tools that we have come to rely on. All ISPs are shut down, cell phone service has been cut, and Al Jazeera has lost its license to broadcast within the country.

Yet the people … Read more

Internet 'kill switch'--help or hindrance? (poll)

There's nothing like a whole-country Internet disconnect to focus attention on how a so-called "kill switch" would work.

While proposals to give President Obama emergency authority to disconnect privately owned computers from the Internet have circulating on Capitol Hill for a few years, last week's news about Egypt pulling the plug on its Net-connection focused new attention on the topic. (On January 24, CNET was the first to report that the legislation will return this year.)

Legendary technology columnist John C. Dvorak warned that such a proposal "gives the president the power to literally kill … Read more

Al Jazeera calls for bloggers to spread Egypt news

With its own news outlet cut off in Egypt, Al Jazeera is urging the country's citizens to use blogs, social media, eyewitness accounts, and videos to tell the world what's going as the protests against President Hosni Mubarak continue, according to the Associated Press.

Yesterday, the Arab news network's Cairo office was closed down and its broadcast signal cut off to some parts of the Middle East following complaints by Egyptian authorities that Al Jazeera's 24-hour coverage of the uprising was slanted toward the protesters and as such could incite more unrest.

Along with the office'… Read more

Egypt's Internet disconnect reaches 24 hours

Egypt's unprecedented Internet disconnection has now lasted 24 hours without signs of ending.

At this time yesterday, one by one, the country's electronic links to the outside world fell silent. It started at 2:12 p.m. PT with the mostly state-owned Telecom Egypt disabling its networks, with four smaller network providers following suit between 2:13 p.m. PT and 2:25 p.m. PT.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appeared on state television at approximately 2:15 p.m. PT today to announce that he would sack his cabinet but would not resign--an indication that no end … Read more