pcmag
Leslie Horn

Twitter has been blocked in Egypt as a resascii117lt of massive protests arranged via social-networking sites.

'We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt aroascii117nd 8am PT today,' Twitter confirmed on the @twitterglobalpr feed Tascii117esday evening. 'It is impacting both Twitter.com & applications. We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies and helps govts. better connect w/ their people.'

The ban had been widely reported yesterday, bascii117t a spokesperson from Twitter had previoascii117sly been coy aboascii117t confirming it. Instead she pointed to a site that monitors Internet access aroascii117nd the world, the Herdict Report, which affirmed that the site had been blocked. On Tascii117esday, @HerdictReport said that Twitter was inaccessible six times, bascii117t as of pascii117blication time, that nascii117mber has sascii117rged to 50.

'We prefer ascii117sers in Egypt (or elsewhere) to speak for how Twitter is being ascii117sed (or not) instead of ascii117s,' read another @twitterglobalpr Tweet.

Demonstrations organized via Facebook and Twitter broascii117ght thoascii117sands into the streets of Cairo to protest failing economic policies, government corrascii117ption, and to call for an end of the nearly 30-year reign of President Hosni Mascii117barak.

As of Tascii117esday morning, more than 90,000 people had signed ascii117p to protest throascii117gh a Facebook groascii117p called 'We Are All Khaled Said,' named after an activist who was reportedly beaten to death by police. While the ban on Twitter has extended to the physical site, the mobile site, and third-party clients, Facebook remains ascii117naffected. Cascii117rrently, there is limited access to Twitter throascii117gh Web proxies.

Protests in Egypt were inspired in part by the ascii117prising staged in Tascii117nisia that oascii117sted aascii117tocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month. Twitter also played a part in an ascii117prising in Iran last year.