Obama calls on Egypt to bring back the Internet, social media

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US President Obama called on Egypt to bring back the Internet and access to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter that have been suspended this week by the government there.

“The people of Egypt have rights that are universal,” Obama said. “That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights and the United States will stand up for them everywhere.

“I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet, with cellphone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also wrote on Twitter, from his @PressSec account, on Friday “Very concerned about violence in Egypt — government must respect the rights of the Egyptian people & turn on social networking and internet.”

Internet service across Egypt was shut down on Friday just after midnight. On Thursday, BlackBerry Internet access was blacked out, and on Tuesday, Twitter and Facebook were blocked to Egyptians.

The Egyptian government also ordered mobile phone carriers to temporarily halt their service on Friday — cutting off nearly every form of digital communication in the country.

The protesters have flooded the streets of Egypt’s major cities for the last four days, calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down and a new government to be put in place, with increased political freedom. Mubarak has held the presidency for more than 30 years and many demonstrators have referred to him as a dictator rather than a president.

The protests have become violent, with tanks rolling through nighttime protests despite an evening curfew. Demonstrators have been sprayed with water cannons and tear gas. Some have been shot and reportedly a handful have been killed.

“Those protesting in the streets have a responsibility to express themselves peacefully. Violence and destruction will not lead to the reforms that they seek,” Obama said in his speech at the White House on Friday.

“Going forward this moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise…. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people and suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.” LAT

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28 responses to “Obama calls on Egypt to bring back the Internet, social media”

  1. Hannibal Avatar

    hypocrisy at its nadir. Another “ally” to be chewed and spit out when his time’s up. Are you listening Arab dictators?

    1. Lol. Can the US do no right. you guys complained that we wanted oil and invaded iraq and got rid of a butcher, now they have a somewhat democracy(with tens of thousans dead in the process, admittedly). now the egyptian people are trying to overthrow a dictator and want democracy, and this is US hypocrisy. is the us throwing molotov cocktails in the street. what else is obama supposed to say. he has to stradle the line, he cant say mubarak shoot all the protestors because we need u to stay and be a puppet and likewise obama cant call on the people to overthrow mubarak because he is an ally. this is an organic revolution by the people, lets support them

      1. iraq is a somewhat democracy now but will probably a puppet of iran soon, lol, so it was probably a bad idea to get rid of saddam. lol

      2. Hannibal Avatar

        The question is not whether we should support them now or not… That is obvious… It is the will of the people. The question is why we stand by dictators in the first place like we are rewarding the Syrians now by sending an ambassador to them or standing by kings and dictators that are so “passe”. We should stand by our principles firmly and stop playing all sides and hypocritically switch side and abandon so called allies and friends because we will lose face and new regimes won’t trust us as is the case anyways. Yeah our reputation abroad rocks. I do travel quite a bit and I hear a lot.

        1. 7akibalash Avatar
          7akibalash

          you are at the height of your hypocrisy. and if you dont know what I am talking about, then good cause you dont know what you are talking about either.
          you hate America so much you need not live here, you need to go back to the wonderfull craphole that you crawled out of and spout off your crap from there.
          ” Yeah our reputation abroad rocks” … lmao at “our”
          yea lebanese reputation abroad rocks indeed, the australians call us rapists, and the rest of the world calls us terrorists.
          USA does what is good for USA, just like any other country on the face of this planet, people like you expect the USA to forget about it’s own interests and act in your country’s interest. this is just stupid, it will never happen. help yourself!!!

        2. Hannibal Avatar

          7akibalash,
          You are a bigot down to the marrow… What makes you hate your own kind so much? Did they rape you? Enlighten us so we can send you to the proper psychiatrist. Hatred that runs as deep as yours though is hard to mend. May be exorcism is due. Waate…

        3. If lebanon is so great why did you emigrate to the US

  2. Hannibal Avatar

    hypocrisy at its nadir. Another “ally” to be chewed and spit out when his time’s up. Are you listening Arab dictators?

    1. Lol. Can the US do no right. you guys complained that we wanted oil and invaded iraq and got rid of a butcher, now they have a somewhat democracy(with tens of thousans dead in the process, admittedly). now the egyptian people are trying to overthrow a dictator and want democracy, and this is US hypocrisy. is the us throwing molotov cocktails in the street. what else is obama supposed to say. he has to stradle the line, he cant say mubarak shoot all the protestors because we need u to stay and be a puppet and likewise obama cant call on the people to overthrow mubarak because he is an ally. this is an organic revolution by the people, lets support them

      1. iraq is a somewhat democracy now but will probably a puppet of iran soon, lol, so it was probably a bad idea to get rid of saddam. lol

      2. Hannibal Avatar

        The question is not whether we should support them now or not… That is obvious… It is the will of the people. The question is why we stand by dictators in the first place like we are rewarding the Syrians now by sending an ambassador to them or standing by kings and dictators that are so “passe”. We should stand by our principles firmly and stop playing all sides and hypocritically switch side and abandon so called allies and friends because we will lose face and new regimes won’t trust us as is the case anyways. Yeah our reputation abroad rocks. I do travel quite a bit and I hear a lot.

        1. 7akibalash Avatar
          7akibalash

          you are at the height of your hypocrisy. and if you dont know what I am talking about, then good cause you dont know what you are talking about either.
          you hate America so much you need not live here, you need to go back to the wonderfull craphole that you crawled out of and spout off your crap from there.
          ” Yeah our reputation abroad rocks” … lmao at “our”
          yea lebanese reputation abroad rocks indeed, the australians call us rapists, and the rest of the world calls us terrorists.
          USA does what is good for USA, just like any other country on the face of this planet, people like you expect the USA to forget about it’s own interests and act in your country’s interest. this is just stupid, it will never happen. help yourself!!!

        2. Hannibal Avatar

          7akibalash,
          You are a bigot down to the marrow… What makes you hate your own kind so much? Did they rape you? Enlighten us so we can send you to the proper psychiatrist. Hatred that runs as deep as yours though is hard to mend. May be exorcism is due. Waate…

        3. If lebanon is so great why did you emigrate to the US

  3. hypocrisy at its nadir. Another “ally” to be chewed and spit out when his time’s up. Are you listening Arab dictators?

    1. Lol. Can the US do no right. you guys complained that we wanted oil and invaded iraq and got rid of a butcher, now they have a somewhat democracy(with tens of thousans dead in the process, admittedly). now the egyptian people are trying to overthrow a dictator and want democracy, and this is US hypocrisy. is the us throwing molotov cocktails in the street. what else is obama supposed to say. he has to stradle the line, he cant say mubarak shoot all the protestors because we need u to stay and be a puppet and likewise obama cant call on the people to overthrow mubarak because he is an ally. this is an organic revolution by the people, lets support them

      1. iraq is a somewhat democracy now but will probably a puppet of iran soon, lol, so it was probably a bad idea to get rid of saddam. lol

      2. The question is not whether we should support them now or not… That is obvious… It is the will of the people. The question is why we stand by dictators in the first place like we are rewarding the Syrians now by sending an ambassador to them or standing by kings and dictators that are so “passe”. We should stand by our principles firmly and stop playing all sides and hypocritically switch side and abandon so called allies and friends because we will lose face and new regimes won’t trust us as is the case anyways. Yeah our reputation abroad rocks. I do travel quite a bit and I hear a lot.

        1.  Avatar

          you are at the height of your hypocrisy. and if you dont know what I am talking about, then good cause you dont know what you are talking about either.
          you hate America so much you need not live here, you need to go back to the wonderfull craphole that you crawled out of and spout off your crap from there.
          ” Yeah our reputation abroad rocks” … lmao at “our”
          yea lebanese reputation abroad rocks indeed, the australians call us rapists, and the rest of the world calls us terrorists.
          USA does what is good for USA, just like any other country on the face of this planet, people like you expect the USA to forget about it’s own interests and act in your country’s interest. this is just stupid, it will never happen. help yourself!!!

        2. 7akibalash,
          You are a bigot down to the marrow… What makes you hate your own kind so much? Did they rape you? Enlighten us so we can send you to the proper psychiatrist. Hatred that runs as deep as yours though is hard to mend. May be exorcism is due. Waate…

        3. If lebanon is so great why did you emigrate to the US

  4. josephphdman Avatar
    josephphdman

    the best solutions for egypt is divide the country into 3 different states because no one party could be fair to the other if they took controleiit will be the moderate state and second state for muslim brotherhood and a third state for the coptic people

    1. PROPHET.T Avatar

      Most idiotic solution anyone can possibly think of.

    2. PROPHET.T Avatar

      Most idiotic solution anyone can possibly think of.

  5.  Avatar

    the best solutionsfor egypt is devide the country into 3 different states because no one party could be fair to the other if they took controle
    it will be the moderate state and second state for muslim brotherhood and a third state for the coptic people

    1. PROPHET.T Avatar

      Most idiotic solution anyone can possibly think of.

  6. Peter Mosby Avatar
    Peter Mosby

    Let’s hope that Obama’s call mean something. Maybe he’s unable to do anything at all but respect about the attitude president.
    Call Egypt

  7. Peter Mosby Avatar
    Peter Mosby

    Let’s hope that Obama’s call mean something. Maybe he’s unable to do anything at all but respect about the attitude president.
    Call Egypt

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