After Blocking Twitter, Egypt Reportedly Starts Restricting Access To Facebook
According to a number of tips we've received in the past few minutes, the chatter on Twitter and several local reports (mostly in Arabic), it appears Egyptian authories have moved to block Facebook. Yesterday, Twitter was blocked.
Context & Ripple Effects
Egyptian authorities' confirmed blackout of Twitter came first, and the reported Facebook restriction is so far unconfirmed — sourced to user tips and local Arabic-language reports rather than any official statement. The sequencing matters: cutting both platforms in quick succession targets the two main channels used to organize and broadcast unrest.
Netcraft's reporting that Anonymous is attacking websites in Egypt shows the confrontation is already extending beyond access-blocking into attacks on government infrastructure, giving the story traction well beyond Egyptian borders.
First-order effects
- Egyptian users lose their two primary coordination and broadcast channels mid-unrest — Twitter definitively blocked, Facebook reportedly restricted — forcing organizing onto harder-to-monitor channels.
- Both platforms see Egyptian traffic collapse overnight, turning an internal political decision into a measurable global-usage event for Twitter and Facebook.
Second-order effects
- Demand for proxies and circumvention tools spikes among Egyptian users, while outside groups like Anonymous escalate pressure through direct attacks on Egyptian websites, per Netcraft's coverage.
- Twitter and Facebook face immediate reputational and product questions about whether to build censorship-resistance into their services, since any market can be switched off by its government.
Third-order effects
- If blocking becomes the default crisis response, state control of social platforms hardens into a recognized governance playbook — regimes treat consumer networks as toggleable national infrastructure, and platform architecture evolves around that assumption.
- International pressure over shutdowns pushes the question of who bears responsibility for connectivity — governments, telcos, or the platforms themselves — toward regulators and rights bodies as a standing policy issue.
The trend: Governments are increasingly treating consumer social networks as state-switchable infrastructure, with wholesale blocking becoming a first-response tool during civil unrest.