Home Panicking at Protesters, Egypt Blocks Twitter, More: This Week in Online Tyranny

Panicking at Protesters, Egypt Blocks Twitter, More: This Week in Online Tyranny

Twitter blocked in Egypt. On January 25, in response to massive protests, the Egyptian government blocked Twitter, which protesters were using to spread the word of movement around Cairo and other cities.

The next day, January 26, the government sporadically blocked Facebook and Google services, among others. Later in the day, Facebook and Google seemed to be largely functional.

Members of the hacking collective Anonymous simultaneously targeted several Egyptian government websites, at least one of which they managed to shut down.

Mozilla and Google add “do not track” features. Google in its Chrome browser and Mozilla in its Firefox browser have laid in options to keep users from being tracked by sites they visit.

Bahraini online writer released on bail, others still held. After three months in jail, Mohammad Al-Rashid has been freed on bail. Ali Abduleman and Abduljalil Al-Singace are still being held. All have been arrested for their online writing.

Kuwaiti blogger released. Mohamed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem was released early after given a three month sentence in late November writing on his blog.

Iranian blogger may die. Iranian authorities are neglecting the health needs of convicted blogger Hussein Rongah Melki. Iran’s already killed one blogger through rough treatment combined with neglect. It’s only a matter of time until they increase their score.

British arrest five Anonymous hackers. London police took five computer users into custody for “misuse.”

Photos from We are all Khaled Said

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