Egypt co-opts Vodafone network for pro-government tweets
Egyptian authorities have hijacked Vodafone’s Egyptian network in order to send unattributed text messages praising the government, according to the British telecoms giant.
Vodafone states that the North African government invoked emergency laws to appropriate its network – having earlier been instructed to switch it off, a move which the firm decried as “unacceptable”.
In a statement the company said: “These messages are not scripted by any of the mobile network operators and we do not have the ability to respond to the authorities on their content."
The likely cost of such measures to the Egyptian economy are likely to be huge however with a bill of $90m for the internet clampdown likely to be dwarfed by a loss of investor confidence in the volatile state.