Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the social networking site is seeing minimal traffic from Egypt. Egyptians do not have access to Google and YouTube as well.
Egyptian authorities have also reportedly shut down official Domain Name Servers (DNS).
In another development, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese Communist Party has ordered Internet censors to block the word “Egypt” from Twitter-like micro-blogging sites out of apparent concern events in the Middle East will stoke unrest closer to home.
According to Ovum analyst Angel Dobardziev:
“Press reports that internet connectivity has been shut down in Egypt, and that mobile operators have been ordered to shut down services have several broad implications for the wider telecoms industry, and the Middle East in particular.
“At a most basic level it underlines the political risk of operating in the emerging markets for players as diverse such as Vodafone, Blackberry, and Google, which they have to weight against the undoubted growth opportunity.
“More importantly, it is clear that the massive growth of mobile and internet services, while bringing massive productivity and social benefits to the region, has also brought a whole new level of social connectness, openness, information access, and aspiration. Particularly in the younger generation that goes against the more conservative and authoritarian tradition that has been the norm hitherto.
“In this context, the telecoms boom in the region accelerated the clash between tradition and modernity, the open versus closed society, which we are now witnessing in the Middle East, and other places (e.g. China), which regimes are trying to contain.
“All said, the genie is out of the bottle, and while some regimes may try, there is no way of reversing the impact communications have made on the emerging markets and their people. But as events in Egypt show, the road ahead may be rocky for all, including telcos and the people they serve.”
Meanwhile a report on Yahoo News reveals that the U.S. Threatens to Cut Aid After Egypt Cuts Off Internet and Uses Violence to Stop Political Protests
