[Rt4-whois] FW: [IP] Internet Security Savvy is Critical as Egyptian Government Blocks Websites, Arrests Activists in Response to Continued Protest | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Sat Jan 29 03:14:07 UTC 2011

Dear All,

I know we are all watching the stories from the Middle East with
interest, and great concern. I remember the issue of privacy/anonymity
came up in our London discussions. I thought the following posting to
Professor Dave Farber's Interesting People List might be of interest. 

Best,

Kathy

From: David Farber [mailto:dave at farber.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 3:50 PM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] Internet Security Savvy is Critical as Egyptian Government
Blocks Websites, Arrests Activists in Response to Continued Protest |
Electronic Frontier Foundation

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/01/egypt-blocks-websites-arrests-blogg
ers-and

Internet Security Savvy is Critical as Egyptian Government Blocks
Websites, Arrests Activists in Response to Continued Protest
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/01/egypt-blocks-websites-arrests-blog
gers-and> 

Commentary <http://www.eff.org/blog-categories/commentary>  by Eva
Galperin <http://www.eff.org/about/staff/eva-galperin> 

As we've seen in Iran and Tunisia, social networking tools have given
activists in authoritarian regimes a powerful voice, which can be heard
well beyond their own country. But the use of social networking tools
has also given their governments ways to identify and retaliate against
them. This week we are watching the same dynamic play out in Egypt. This
is why it is critical that all activists -in Egypt and elsewhere-take
precautions to protect their anonymity and freedom of expression. The
protests in Egypt this week also highlight another important point:
authoritarian governments can block access to social media websites, but
determined, tech-savvy activists are likely to find ways to circumvent
censorship to communicate with the rest of the world.

In an attempt to clamp down on Egyptian protesters, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak's government is intermittently blocking websites
<http://www.herdict.org/web/explore/country/EG/32767>  and arresting
<https://cpj.org/2011/01/journalists-beaten-websites-blocked-amid-protes
ts.php>  bloggers, journalists, and dissidents. Like the Tunisians,
Egyptian protesters have made heavy use of social media websites to
share information about the protests with the outside world and with
each other. In spite of the Egyptian government's blocking of Twitter,
tweets <https://twitter.com/#!/search/jan25>  from the Egyptian protests
in Suez and Cairo provided up-to-the-minute reports about protest
activity, the movements of police, deaths and injuries, links to photos
on Twitpic, and videos on YouTube. Cooperation amongst protesting
citizens has kept communications resilient so far. When protestors in
Cario's Tahir Square experienced an outage in cell phone data service,
nearby residents reportedly
<http://www.itp.net/583714-egypt-government-denies-twitter-block>
opened their home Wi-Fii networks to allow protesters to get online.

On the first day of protests, the Egyptian government blocked several
websites, including Twitter and Bambuser <http://bambuser.com/> , a
Swedish website which allows users to stream live video from their cell
phones. By the second day, the government's blocking of Twitter was
sparse and intermittent, but there were reports of blocking Facebook and
YouTube. It is unclear whether or not the Egyptian government will
continue to expand its list of blocked sites in the coming days. Even
the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was conspicuously silent
during the protests leading up to the Tunisian revolution, has called on
the Mubarak government to respect freedom of expression and urged them
"not to...block communications, including on social media sites."

The other dangerous aspect of the Mubarak government's shameful campaign
of silence and censorship has been the arrest and detention of bloggers,
journalists, and activists. The Committee to Protect Journalists has
reported that the Egyptian government has shut down at least two
independent news websites: Al-Dustour and El-Badil. Police beat
Al-Jazeera correspondent Mustafa Kafifi and Guardian reporter Jack
Shenker, who posted anaudio recording
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2011/jan/26/egypt-violence-jack-s
henker-arrest-audio>  of the incident. Policemen have attacked and
arrested cameramen covering the protests and onlookers recording the
protests with cell phones.

Egypt is no stranger to the arrest of bloggers. Egyptian blogger Kareem
Amer <http://boingboing.net/2007/02/24/egypt_blogger_kareem.html>  was
sentenced to four years in prison for "disparaging religion" and
"defaming the president" in 2007. In 2009, web forum founder Karim
Al-Bukheiri <http://rt.com/news/bloggers-egypt-arrest-torture/>  was
arrested, tortured, and subject to constant government surveillance.
Just last year, the Islamic Human Rights Foundation reported that
Egyptian Security Forces arrested "at least 29 activists, including
bloggers, lawyers, and human rights activists." The concern here is
clear-if the street protests subside, the Mubarak government could
initiate a campaign of retaliation and oppression, arresting and
harassing the very bloggers and activists who have been chronicling the
protests online. Some countries have gone even further. In Iran two
opposition activists were hanged
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12272067>  this week for
taking pictures and video of the Green Revolution protests and posting
them online.

Given the potential dangers, it is absolutely critical that Egyptian
protesters take precautions when communicating online. To reiterate,
social networking tools have given activists a powerful voice, which can
be heard well beyond Egypt, but activists should also remember that the
Egyptian government could use these same tools to identify and retaliate
against them. We recommend that political activists look at our
Surveillance Self Defense International
<http://www.eff.org/wp/surveillance-self-defense-international>  report
for information on how to use technology defensively to better protect
their anonymity and freedom of expression in Egypt and other
authoritarian regimes.

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