Human Rights Group Accuse Vodafone of Shutting Down Egypt Network

Vodafone is being accused of letting repressive regimes hijack its network during the Arab Spring, indicating the increasingly precarious positions operators and other infrastructure providers occupy as mobile technology becomes a tool of social change.

Lobbying group AccessNow last Tuesday accosted the London-based operator at its annual meeting, bringing a resolution to the company regarding its role in Egypt's revolution this spring. Vodafone says Egyptian officials forced it to send out pro-government messages and eventually shut down the network during the January uprisings, stymying emergency services in the country as well as crippling communications.

Vodafone claimed it restored service after 24 hours, but access to the Internet remained blocked for five days.

AccessNow's reprimand against Vodafone signals the precarious position carriers and operators occupy as social and political mobile-based technology and social media continue to fuel social change. The so-called "Arab Spring" gained much of its momentum through the Internet and cell phones, with information, images and news transmitted within and beyond borders quickly, and sometimes covertly, over handsets.

Beyond Egypt, which deposed President Hosni Mubarak after a period of revolution, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, and others protested entrenched regimes using Facebook, Twitter and handsets to speed up the pace of change.