Tuesday 25 January 2011

Bambuser blocked in Egypt as Government seeks to control news agenda



We can confirm that Bambuser was blocked in Egypt at 1 PM CET January 25th, as the local government seeks to control the news in the face of mass demonstrations by protestors frustrated by the poverty and oppression they face in the country.

Organised by internet savvy, young Egyptians using Twitter and Facebook to communicate and organise, Bambuser has proved to be the perfect tool for protestors to quickly and easily share content – live – to a watching world, on social media sites. Prior to services like Bambuser entering the field, protestors would record videos and upload them to YouTube when they got home; however, many never made it, as police confiscated phones. Now they can't operate like that, and instead have chosen to close the whole service in order to stay in control.

Here at Bambuser, we are proud to be a democratic tool for freedom of speech, and condemn the abuse of power that we are seeing today. We are working hard to ensure access resumes for the Egyptian community and stand by them in their quest for the right to protest.

UPDATE: These are some of the last broadcasts coming out of Egypt today, before we got blocked