Google & Twitter Sidestep Egypt's Internet Blockade

Egypt's government has virtually shut down communications among the protesters: The last Internet provider has just been paralyzed. But the opposition is getting unexpected help: Now Google makes it possible for Egyptians to tweet via phone.
 

Egypt's opposition movement wants to mobilize more people than ever; on Tuesday, it expects one million to hit the streets of Cairo and force President Mubarak to step down.

 

But the Mubarak administration is fighting back. It has systematically clamped down on communication networks. All Internet providers are down already, and the mobile phone networks are said to be next.

 

The protests have continued unabated (see video). And now the protesters are getting help from an unexpected side. 

 

"Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground," Google writes on its official blog. "Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection."

Engineers at Google, Twitter and SayNow, a company Google acquired last week, designed the service, which allows people in Egypt to tweet others by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail. 

Anyone can tweet by leaving a voicemail on one of three international phone numbers (+1.650.419.4196 or +39.06.6220.7294 or +97.316.199.855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

Naturally Google's announcement of the special speak-to-tweet service is quite a PR coup for the company. But if it makes a difference for people power, why not?

What do you think? If Egypt's opposition succeeds in wresting power from President Mubarak, what will be the consequences for the region? Good or bad? I look forward to your comments on my blog.

All the best,

P.S. To download my new book Leading Leaders: The Art and Science of Boosting Return on People (ROP) for free, go to Leading-Leaders.