Egypt Turns Off Its Internet Connections Amidst Revolution

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In response to several different protests that turned violent as the police were called in, the government of Egypt took steps that few countries have been able to manage. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak basically cut his country off from the rest of the world by effectively turning of his country’s internet.

The Internet was not able to find Egypt as all routes into and out of the country were almost simultaneously withdrawn and the country’s internet presence almost completely disappeared over the course of one half hour. While roughly 88 percent of the country’s internet was blocked, there were some ISPs who were still active including the link to Egypt’s stock exchange. Because the easiest way to get information about these instances is through internet communication, it is unknown whether the 12 percent of the net still standing was left up on purpose or simply because the government missed them.