Surely, many are wondering right now with what this is all about and this news definitely came as a big surprise. We have all heard about Blackberry phones being banned in the Middle East or countries having a little lover's quarrel between them but this is the first time we've heard that, Facebook, the world's most beloved social networking site got banned in Egypt.
How exactly this all began is long tale of history so let's cut the story short. Egypt has been under political unrest for a few weeks now starting from January 25th. That majority of the population of its nation is asking for the resignation of long time dictator, Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 2003. In truth, Mubarak wants to step down but the only thing that is stopping him is that Egypt might fall into the wrong hands once he steps down with no clear indication of who will be succeeding him. The protests proceeded to become more violent and severe that on January 28th, the Egyptian government shut internet services down as well mobile phone services and imposed a curfew that protesters decidedly ignored. Notably, social networking giants, Twitter, Google and Facebook were blocked. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling on the government of Egypt to unblock Facebook and Twitter as it is utilized to organize protests. Not doing so allows for more violence and chaos. Mrs. Clintin is urging Egypt, "not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications, including on social media".
As of today, internet services have been partially restored though protesters still insist that Mubarak should immediately resign from office despite his announcement that her no longer intends to run for the Presidency in the coming 2011 elections. Today is capped to be his departure day and the world will all be watching if it materializes.
In the meantime, as with anything urgent, if there is a need to communicate with friends and family to update them of your welfare while in Egypt or if there are people you want to reach out to through Facebook, you may use a private proxy such as unblock Facebook to get in touch.
While the world stops and looks on with the hope that peace in Egypt might be restored sooner than later, while we all hope that our Egyptian brothers and sisters might be safe, while we pray that peace talks and reformations might now be underway, while we all aspire for a better future with similar aspirations, while all want a government that can leverage our current status, we too fight for democracy in our own little way, and democracy is only possible with diplomacy. Let us all hope that world peace and good will prevail.
