Cairo

When I teach the introductory class to the major I am always trying to find ways to engage my students politically. I think it is really important to try and encourage students to become more interested in the world that surrounds us. Last semester when the Wikileaks cable story broke, I was amazed (and a bit saddened) that only about 10 percent of the students had any real information about what was going on.

Later in the semester this class will be talking about Wikileaks as well as the coverage of social media in the Iranian protests last year.  But it might be hard to wait, especially with the events that are now unfolding in Egypt.  One of the aspects I found extremely interesting was Egypt's attempt to block off access to the Internet.   Bobbie Johnson explains what happened in the essay, How Egypt Switched Off the Internet which was written for GigaOM.

Some writers also began to question the recent plan by the Obama Administration to gain the ability to close down some of the more sensitive areas of the Internet (.gov sites?) in the case of a cyber attack.  Information about this plan can be found in Grant Gross' "Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel."  

This third essay, "Could a U.S. government crackdown take America off the Internet?" by Annalee Newitz, connects these two stories and speculates if something similar could happen in America due to the proposed law.

What do you guys think?  Is anyone following the events in Egypt?  What do you make of the way social media is being discussed in relation to the protests?  How is the media playing a role?