Algeria Shuts Down Internet, Facebook as Protesters Battle State Police

The country is reporting that many Facebook accounts have been
deleted or blocked by the government, in an effort to stifle protests
against President Abdelaziz Boutifleka, activists on Twitter reported around
midday in the country.
They also said that the government is working fast to cut off all Internet
providers in the country.

One day after Egyptians celebrated the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s reign, 30,000 Algerian riot police quelled a pro-democracy rally in the Algerian capital while, according to the Telegraph, Algeria has shut down the Internet and Facebook. Added to the mix, the report of a cyber attack by the group ‘Anonymous’ who blocked the website of the Algerian Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, Voice of America reported ‘Yemen’s security forces clashed with anti-government protesters’ on Saturday.

Other Middle Eastern countries which could see revolutions, according to Think Progress: Syria, Bahrain, Jordan and Yemen.

While the world’s attention was focused on Egypt and the final days of Hosni Mubarak’s reign, the news from Tunisia, on February 9th, the new Senate voted ‘emergency powers’ for Tunisia’s new interim leader Fouad Mebazaa, a bill which would allow Mebazza to ‘rule by decree’. ‘Ruling by decree’ and emergency powers, terms which describes Murbarak’s rule of Egypt.

Source

500 people were arrested on Saturday, with police stations over flowing.

I saw on TV they are protesting, it seems the responses from tptb are predictable yes? Watch You Tube for Anonymous to put up a post I'm thinking.

I wish the Algerians all the sucess of Egypt. I hope they hang in there and do not let the oppression stop them.
Let Freedom Ring!!!

Originally posted by OleMB
Really seems like these regimes have taken lessons from Mubaraks mistakes. Algeria is trying to kill this of with force, Yemen is deploying counter-protesters in the early stages and Iran is cutting of Internet and phone communication. There is only a matter of time before the tactics of Iran is deployed everywhere, destroying the communication between protesters is key. Of course, there is the chance this is only going to enrage the masses further.

I stated this in another thread, and sadly this seems to be happening. Cutting of the communication can really turn the table on things, Egypt just did it to late.

reply to post by Iamschist


It will be interesting to see how much coverage this gets. People were waiting to see what the outcome of the Egypt protests would be,... and so the domino effect starts!

This is amazing to watch all of this unfold!

reply to post by OleMB


That's my concern too. The power of the internet worked so well for Egypt, and played a huge part for them.
Will the cutting off of the Algerian internet greatly effect their protest?
I hope not.

reply to post by Wildeagle


Regular telephone land lines into other countries will get those tweets out there. There's no avoiding the information gathering power of the internet.

When the revolutions start, best to not rely on cells or wireless. A long string between two tin cans may be more useful.

So does this mean the Middle East is standing up for themselves without the U.S. getting into the mix???? I guess we are just instigating. I wish everyone would work together to overrule Government...Jah Bless

Originally posted by masqua
Regular telephone land lines into other countries will get those tweets out there. There's no avoiding the information gathering power of the internet.

I was reading briefly into the capabilities the Americans had in either denying or actually IMPOSING! internet capability on a country of their choice - I forget the term they gave this sort of thing... But if they so chose they they have a few options - that may or may not be considered warfare tactics mind you - they seemed to involve loitering around in the sky in the closest 'friendly' air space with aircraft and unmanned drones pumping out powerful wifi signals and mobile phone access and that sort of thing... Of course they can also block these things.

Mind you looking at the map...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/279b7e89397a.jpg[/atsimg]

Algeria is a huge area, loitering around the edge it's hard to see how the above is possible unless stealth UAV's are used to actually criss cross Algeria's air space... And those neighbouring countries may not bee too keen to offer up their air space either! - They could always broadcast the pirate signals from a boat parked up in the Med I suppose.

I'll go find a link for that stuff, it was interesting.

Originally posted by masqua

When the revolutions start, best to not rely on cells or wireless. A long string between two tin cans may be more useful.

Actually regarding the wireless, don't write that tech off so quickly! - Lots of computers and no internet!?! Create your own ad hoc local area network very easily by just sharing a few configuration settings between computers in wifi range of each other... it's not exactly the internet per say but it's a nice way to keep a community communicating and sharing files etc... And theoretically they can get very large indeed, easily the size of a small town - so that would be a 'micro net'?

From what I remember (not too long ago in history), when Egypt attempted the shutdown of media, that action led to more people taking to the streets because people got bored and it led to more hate against the government.

Have governments already forgot the past few weeks of history?

reply to post by buni11687


These shut downs of the communication's channels in this day in age are a little like trying to stop all the rivers and streams coming down from let's say a mountain. Of course it's possible to dam and control all major and minor known possible routes the water will flow - humans have been doing that for millennia, and getting better and better at it. But essentially you can only attempt to control the flow, you cannot hope to stop it.

And with todays portable and interconnect-able / inter-compatible technologies this provides an interesting challenge for any government - these internet shutdowns therefore could be looked at as exercises or real world tests, lessons would be learnt from mistakes and failures from all sides... Looking out, looking in and just trying to connect from their homes,

It is a very interesting area of development - we should monitor for our own good.

Originally posted by masqua
reply to post by Wildeagle

 

Regular telephone land lines into other countries will get those tweets out there. There's no avoiding the information gathering power of the internet.

When the revolutions start, best to not rely on cells or wireless. A long string between two tin cans may be more useful.

The problem with "Informative revolutions" where the main "weapon" of sorts, is communication .. it does not actually ... enact change.

Tunisia: No different today than it was before. The new regime will be just as corrupt, if not more so, than the last.

Egypt: Once the military took over, people started going home.. there is absolutely no clear picture as to what is happening in the Government, what it will become, or who will lead it. The protesters reasoning? "If they don't follow demands, we will return" .. Mubarak stopped the physical crushing of the protest only because WE made him .. we owned that guy by putting him in power, providing military and financial aid.. he had to do as we said.

All across Eastern Europe, the "color revolutions" have produced a trail of half-ass democracies that are just as corrupt, if not more so than the previous Soviet rulers.

www.bbc.co.uk...
news.bbc.co.uk...

Albanian Protest: Notice it has gotten NO attention in the West? There have been casualties as late as the last week of January.

There is a determined air of orchestration with the sweeping rise of protesting against Middle Eastern countries.. the new governments that are bound to be more corrupt than the last will be more willing to bend to the wills of US and Euro interest, accepting the lucrative contracts we can provide in order to milk the countries of resources..

I don't trust spontaneous communication based protest .. it's a Governments dream come true: anonymously create websites to stir public emotions and charge citizens to protest in the streets. And we know for a fact that the sites that started the Egyptian riots were created by the regional tech rep from Google.

Watching Algeria

RenSys.com

Early reports from Algeria tonight suggested that another Internet takedown may be underway, similar to the one that affected Egypt. So far, however, we don't see confirming evidence for it.

Algeria typically has about 135 routed network prefixes in the global routing table, and our data show that they are all still routed and relatively stable. Traceroutes inbound confirm that sites hosted in these prefixes are still alive, and spot checks of websites hosted in Algeria show that most are up and functioning normally.

]

As much as i'd love to see a fairer, more peaceful world in my lifetime, I can't shake the feeling that these 'revolutions' are simply not good enough.

For one thing, certain countries are too quick to applaud or 'suggest' that certain leaders stand down, yet have turned a blind eye to the activities which have taken place. It's like the equivalent of people standing around watching someone get bullied for thirty years.... and when finally the victim stands up and punches the bully, the crowd suddenly turn around tell the victim that they were behind him all along.

Or maybe i'm being too cynical.

But thousands of people have been injured and many have died in these protests, and it would upset me knowing that it was all in vain?

But hopefully time will tell.