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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: Vodafone Says Egyptian Government Hijacked Its Networks To Send Propaganda A Vodafone Says Egyptian Government Hijacked Its Networks To Send Propaganda Feb. 3 2011 - 8:48 am | 34 views | 0 recommendations | 0 comments By ANDY GREENBERG Text messages and the Internet may represent new tools for protesters fighting repressive regimes. But as Vodafone reminded the world on Thursday, those new media can just as easily function as state-of-the-art propaganda. In a statement to press, Vodafone writes that “under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, the Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt. They have used this since the start of the protests.” Blogger and Internet researcher Rebecca Mackinnon has posted a link to photos in her Twitter feed of what she says are those propaganda texts. Translated from Arabic by the Egyptian who posted the images, one reads “The Armed Forces cares for your safety and well being and will not resort to using force against this great nation.” Another is translated to read “the Armed Forces asks Egypt’s honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor and our precious Egypt.” “These messages are not scripted by any of the mobile network operators and we do not have the ability to respond to the authorities on their content,” Vodafone’s statement continues. It adds that Vodafone has told authorities that such use of its SMS networks is “unacceptable.” “We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator.” Vodafone and other mobile networks in Egypt, as well as the country’s Internet service providers, had been criticized for bowing to the government’s demands that they shut off service in the midst of the country’s swelling anti-government protests. Vodafone’s chief executive Vittorio Colao responded at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the mobile network was required to comply with Egyptian law. As late as early Thursday morning, Vodafone told Reuters that its networks were still at least partially shut down. Vodafone’s statement and the images of propaganda messages suggest that some service has returned. Those texts will be an important means of communication for the protestors who continue to rally in Cairo’s increasingly violent Tahrir Square. But they’ll clearly be an important tool for the government’s information campaign against those protests, too. StarRemovePickunPick * Recommend * o Buzz Up!Buzz Up! o RedditReddit o StumbleUponStumbleUpon o FacebookFacebook o TwitterTwitter o Email thisEmail this Previous Post: Google Puts $20,000 Bounty On Chrome In Hacking Contest
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