The chart below illustrates the Egyptian government’s most recent attempt to stem the rising tide of civilian protests. Apparently recognizing the threat that social networking sites posed, the Egyptians finally pulled the plug on the entire Internet on Thursday:

“[I]n an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet … every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world …[t]he Egyptian government’s actions tonight have essentially wiped their country from the global map.”

Unfortunately for Mubarak, while he my have limited his citizen’s ability to share information, their anger and frustration won’t be staunched so easily. He may find that the genie is already out of the bottle.

Source: Arbor Networks

Further reading:

• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/opinion/25iht-edcohen25.html?ref=global
• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41285248/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12306041
• http://www.slate.com/id/2281743/

Update:

• February 23, 2011 – The role of social media in the regime change in Egypt is still being debated but, in the court of public opinion, at least one company is gaining high praise: Facebook. One Egyptian family has honored the company’s role in the Jasmine Revolution by naming their daughter “Facebook.” (Link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/21/egypt.child.facebook/index.html)
• April 6, 2011 – More follow-up: http://www.slate.com/id/2286432/
• December 27, 2019 – Has social media lived up to its revolutionary promise: https://www.wired.com/story/the-two-myths-of-the-internet/
• January 17, 2020 – https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/how-twitter-harms-left/605098/