Egyptian online activists have started a campaign asking others to boycott mobile service providers. The call to action is to coincide with the one-year anniversary of cutting off mobile phone services for three days beginning on 28 January during the uprising that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Submissive to orders from the ousted regime, the three operating mobile phone companies in the country, Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat, cut off their services across the whole country, which activists said was disastrous as it led to many deaths due to the communications cut.
Mobile companies have reportedly said it was out of their hands, as they were forced to do so and had to comply with the orders.
The communication law in Egypt says the government has the right to order companies to terminate their services in cases of “emergency” or threats to national security.
“We will shut off our phones on January 28 from noon to 11.30 so we could say thank you for helping kill the protesters,” one Facebook page promoting the boycott wrote.
“Thanks for tapping our phones and recording them to help state security kill us,” said another.
Others asked their friends to simply answer their phones and close it right away “to stay in solidarity with every blood drop that was shed as a result of the absence of the service.”
Manar Ammar
