As I write this piece, 250,000 protesters flock the streets of Cairo as a new government takes over, one where Hosni Mubarak remains President. Egypt is a nation under fire. Internet connection is still out. All communication channels are suspended like SMS, TV broadcasts, and some mobile networks have ceased to exist since last week. Not if pesky yet reliable journalists can help it and some spark of resourcefulness from a few Egyptians.
Vodaphone Halts Operations
Some mobile users have been reportedly been using clever tactics to bypass the Internet blockade as well. Even though mobile company Vodaphone has obliged to cease its operations upon the order of the Mumbarak’s forces, Twitter has urged for a transparent and sporadic flow of tweets in Egypt.
Human Spirit fuels Social Media. Photo Courtesy of Flickr via Al Jazeera
This is very admirable of Twitter because it lives to its name as a dependable harbinger of information in the planet today. Twitter believes that freedom of expression is a human right. And every social platform is fuelled by user-generated content, if not, it is fuelled by the human spirit in such dire times. Recent reports claim that cellphone services are slowly returning to Egypt. Meanwhile, some people are devising means to get through the blockade…
Old Reliables Fuel the Social Web
While the efforts of the Egyptian people seem futile, a handful of journalists in Egypt have been catapulting relevant updates from the land of the pharaohs using conventional satellite phones and other old school means of transmitting data to the Web (i.e. dial-up modems).
Twitter and Facebook are blocked. Good thing there are third-party applications like HootSuite, TweetDeck, and TweetBeat to quench the thirst for updates. Also, people have been using proxy sites to land on social sites; this is a no-brainer method because I’ve also been doing such to bypass internet restrictions in computer labs during college (hehe!). Users have been sharing a number of reliable proxy sites. Annoying banner ads don’t bother them at all. Logging in to Facebook or Twitter is of the essence.
Egypt is trending heavily on Twitter last week. Photo Courtesy of Flickr via Al Jazeera
Furthermore, VPNs or virtual private networks are helping users to land on social sites as well. They make it seem that they’re accessing the Web from another country. It’s considered “connection-masking” and can be utilized using a smartphone as well! The best thing is that VPN access is being shared for free. Latest reports are saying that Google, Twitter, and SayNow came up with a tweet system using voicemail. Tweets using the service will automatically have the hashtag #egypt and can be heard on @speak2tweet.
Social Platforms: Paving the Way for New Babylons?
Since the Iran elections, social platforms like Twitter have been used extensively for journalists to provide real-time data. This time it’s Egypt’s turn. With the recent uprisings of eclectic societies, it’s not surprising that social platforms will be a crucial tool to make or break any country. Arguably, a nation’s social web activity reflects its very image as a whole – in real-time.
Signs of the (Social Media) Times. Photo Courtesy of Flickr via Al Jazeera
