Middle East News
US State Department, in tweet, criticizes Cairo for telecoms cutoff
Jan 28, 2011, 12:38 GMT
Washington - In a symbolic move, the US State Department on Friday used the Twitter form to criticize Cairo's move to cut off telecom services in a bid to undermine ongoing protests.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley issued a tweet 'We are concerned that communication services, including the Internet, social media and even this tweet, are being blocked in Egypt.'
The brief message comes after the US in recent days had urged that Egyptians should continue to have uninterrupted access to social networks in the internet such as Twitter and Facebook.
Earlier Friday, telecommunications in Egypt were severely curtailed, with many internet sites blocked and mobile phone services interrupted.
Vodafone Egypt released a statement saying all mobile phone operators in the country had been 'obliged' to suspend services.
Outsiders were experiencing difficulties connecting to landline numbers in Cairo, while only some anti-government websites with servers located abroad were working, but their operators had difficulties updating them.
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