Global Voices Advocacy » Ramy Raoof

Egypt: Timeline of Communication Shutdown during the Revolution

Ramy Raoof — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:55:37 +0000

This diagram represents sequence of communication shutdown implemented by security agencies in Egypt and telecommunications companies starting 25 January to 6 February, to control the flow of information between people.

Click on the image to enlarge

Mobile Tactics for Participants in Peaceful Assemblies

Ramy Raoof — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:26:25 +0000

If you are participating in a peaceful assembly as a journalists, rights defender, or activists, your mobile phone is an invaluable asset. It allows you to communicate with allies, to document the event, and bear witness to what is happening around you. At the same time, you should take certain precautions in your mobile use and communications. The following Guide published via Mobile Active can help you to utilize your mobile phone during peaceful assemblies effectively and, at the same time, better protect yourself.

Assess Mobile Risks

In most public assemblies, you face risks from:

Loss and seizure of your mobile phone;
Disruptions to service from hardware or network failures;
Surveillance of your communications.

Each of these risks can be mitigated to some extent so long as you plan ahead, know your phone, and the basics of how mobile communications works. Remember though that every situation is different and that mobile phones are inherently insecure communication devices. We urge you to review this Primer on Mobile Risks for more guidance in assessing your mobile risks.

Understand the Value of Information on your Mobile Phone

1. Videos and Photos

The photos and videos that you capture as a participant in a peaceful assembly are valuable documentation. For example, suppose you encounter an incident on the street and are able to capture footage of the event on your mobile. This evidence can be important to refute false information about an assembly or can be used as proof that the incident occurred. The footage might also be useful as proof of wrongdoing by someone (such as a police officer).

2. Your Private Information

Your mobile phone stores large amounts of private information. See the Primer on Mobile Risks for more specifics about the data stored on your mobile. Your mobile may contain your contact list, text messages, call logs, web browsing history, notes, and documents.

This kind of information could expose your work and your networks. It could easily be misused and shouldn’t be made available to anyone without your knowledge. Always be aware of the content you have on your mobile phone and use available security (such as a pin code, keypad autolock, phone autolock, lock code… etc). We will be publishing specific Lockdown Guides for instructions about using available security on your mobile device.

What To Do Before Joining a Peaceful Assembly

The following suggestions will help you maintain the stability of your communications and the safety of your information:

1. Back Up Your Mobile Content

You could easily lose your phone in a demonstration (it could fall, be stolen, confiscated by a police officer, snatched by someone). Back up all content off your mobile phone to a secure computer. Be sure to include contacts, messages, logs, media, and any other content that you believe is important. You can then format your phone, deleting all content and records. After the event, you can safely restore the content from your back-up to your device.

2. Carry a Spare Mobile Battery

Although you might have a sense of how long a demonstration will take, it’s hard to guess how things will develop. You might use your mobile for many tasks and the battery might die. Always keep with you at least one extra battery and your charger, if possible. Practice how to change your mobile batteries quickly.

3. Keep Important Information on a Piece of Paper

Write down a few important contacts on a small piece of paper and keep it with you because you might lose your mobile phone and access to your mobile contact list in an emergency. For example, write down contact information for your family, a lawyer, doctor, journalist and human rights organization.

4. Recharge your Credit

If your service plan plan is prepaid, don’t forgot to charge your SIM card. You don’t know how many phone calls you will make or how much data you will upload online.

5. Explore Network Strength

If possible, make a short visit to the location of the assembly and explore the spots where there is high, medium and poor coverage. If you plan to have a WiFi device with you, also note the location (and security!) of any open Wifi networks.

6. Cross-Post

If you are planning to send text updates via Facebook or Twitter, or planning to send pictures to Flickr or Twitpic, connect your accounts to make sure your content will be spread and circulated online in different communities once you post an update or picture or start a live-stream. If you are concerned about the security of this approach, consider setting up a special set of accounts on social websites prior to the assembly without your personal information.

7. Bookmark

Don’t forget to bookmark the links to social websites and online tools you are planning to use. Remember to bookmark the mobile version of the social websites (for instance, http://m.facebook.com, http://m.flickr.com, http://m.twitter.com… etc).

Know your Mobile Phone

1. Explore your Mobile Keypad

You can minimize the risk of being observed using your phone if you know how the letters and numbers are distributed on your phone’s buttons. Many people can type “hi, how are you” on the computer keyboard while chatting without looking to the keyboard. You also need to know how to type a short text message (SMS) without looking to your mobile keypad. If you become more familiar with your mobile keypad, you will be able to send a message without looking at the keypad.
You can save time and effort by knowing shortcuts. Many phones have shortcuts to access mobile applications, like a shortcut to activate the camera for instance. Know and practice those shortcuts without looking at the phone so you can activate an application when necessary.If possible, set-up menu shortucs. In some mobiles, you just need to match the order of the icons in your mobile menu with the order of numbers on your mobile keypad.

2. Explore your Mobile Camera

Know how to optimize your mobile camera to do what you want safely and effectively. Become familiar with how your camera operates and how to control its options. You could get arrested if you are taking a picture of a police officer beating someone, and the flash of your camera gets the officer’s attention. The sound of the camera when you click capture might also draw attention to you so pre-set functions to avoid getting noticed by others.

What To Do During a Peaceful Assembly

1. Assess Your Physical Risk and Police Presence

Your personal safety should always be a priority while taking pictures and videos in a peaceful assembly or sending text messages and web updates. Understand how far you are from security and anti-riot forces and how close to any police vans. Ideally, visit the assembly site prior to the event to become familiar with the location and routes if violence occurs. You don’t have to panic. Just keep your eyes open.

2. Assess Network Coverage and Internet Access

Before you decide to send updates through Twitter or live-stream with tools such as Bambuser, check if you are in a position with enough coverage to support what you want to do online. Keep in mind that the coverage could suddenly drop. Make sure you understand your livestream options and set up accounts prior to the event. This guide might help you to use Bambuser and you will find here other tools.

3. Choose Your Tactics

You can document a peaceful assembly in different forms (via text, video, and picture). You must decide what you want to do based on the situation itself.

If things are calm you can take pictures and send text updates.
If violence is taking place you can turn on your camera and start video-recording events. If you are lucky and there is Internet access you can live-stream what is happening. If you want to inform your friends, lawyers, or anyone else about what is happening via text-message, try to do it without looking to your keypad.

10 Useful Tips

Do not make too many phone calls when you are in a peaceful assembly. It’s better to pass information via SMS. Using SMS enables you to circulate information one-to-many faster, in less time and with less effort, and you won’t consume as much battery. Consider though that you might face message delivery delays due to network issues (either incidental due to network congestion or intentional by security services) and that your phone communication may be under surveillance.
Keep the memory card in your phone (or camera) as empty as possible so that you can store all pictures and videos you take while being in the demonstration or protest. If possible, bring multiple memory cards to use when needed. Practice changing memory cards in your mobile quickly and without looking and store full memory cards securely in a safe place in case you are arrested.
Try to upload all pictures you have on your mobile online as soon as you have internet access to avoid losing the content if you lose your mobile. (You can upload using http://m.twitpic.com/upload or http://m.flickr.com/#/upload, for instance.)
Carry a spare SIM card if you can. In some instances, mobile network operators shut down the numbers of known activists or specific individuals. If you believe that your number may be targeted, and if you can afford to do so, carry an extra SIM card. If you notice that your service is unavailable, try switching SIMs. Changing SIM cards does not mean that you are anonymizing your phone use. Your mobile phone is still identifiable by a unique number on the device itself and, of course, to any SIM card inserted.
Keep your mobile silent and turn the vibration on. No need to get the attention of people surrounding you.
Some mobiles provide a security level usually known as remote-lock. It enables you to lock your mobile by sending SMS with particular keyword you previously set to your mobile if you suddenly lost it. For example, if a police officer snatched your mobile and left, you can simply send an SMS from any mobile with that particular keyword to lock your phone.
If you will be posting content online, write important links in an SMS and save it as a draft. You can just copy-paste the links if your mobile supports this feature.
If you expect to send a particular message to someone, prepare it in your drafts. That will save you time, and you can just click “send” when you want to send it. For example, you can write down “arrested” followed by your name in a message and pick your recipients and save it as a draft.
Consider mobile applications such as SaferMobile InTheClear application. InTheClear lets you preset an emergency SMS to a set of contacts (Shout!) with a single menu click (Panic!). InTheClear also allows you to unobtrusively erase your address book from your phone (Wipe!), should it have been taken from you. You can learn more about IntheClear here and sign up as a beta tester.

Egypt: how companies help the government spy on activists

Ramy Raoof — Sat, 07 May 2011 15:37:59 +0000

One of the demands of the Egyptian revolution was to demolish one of the well-known security services for torture, grave human rights violations and spying on activists which is the State Security Investigations (SSI) and to have its officers set onto trials.

Few weeks ago when authorities didn’t respond immediately to people’s demand, many Egyptians stormed SSI headquarters to protect the evidences against SSI offices (including torture equipments and documents). Among those documents where communications between SSI units related to censorship, monitoring online content, controlling computes/ laptops, as well as shutting down communications services.

Those SSI leaks provides many information that I believe all individuals and entities working on right to privacy and freedom of expression and other relevant fields should understand and be aware of.

Since the first 6 April Strike in Egypt in 2008, security agencies and units decided to pay more attention to activist’s communications online and via their cell phones. The SSI established an Emergency Unit, among its roles to:

Cut-off the internet in a city, governorate or several ones.
Block particulate websites.
Get information about netiznes.
Shutdown mobile services in telecommunication companies.
Shutdown Bulk-SMS services.
Make sure telecommunications companies can quickly respond to requests by security authorities.

The SSI did several meetings in the presence of representatives from Ministry of Interior, General Intelligence, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Mass Communication, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, and the three Telecommunications Companies in Egypt (Vodafone, Mobinil, Etisalat).

In 2009 -and maybe earlier- communications was established from a European-based company with its headquarters in the United Kingdom called Gamma Group International with SSI in Egypt offering them a software that SSI units describe in their internal communications in August 2009 as “high-level security system that have capabilities not provided in other systems, most prominent capabilities is hacking into personal Skype accounts, hacking email accounts associated with Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail, completely control targeted computers” and in another communication in December 2010 “record audio and video chats, record activity taking place around hacked computers with cameras and take copies of its content”.

In those communications between SSI units, the price of the software which is called Finfisher is mentioned to be for 2 million Egyptian pounds.

Here is how Gamma Group International describes itself on their website “provides advanced technical surveillance and monitoring solutions and international consultancy to National and State Intelligence Departments and Law Enforcement Agencies.”

The most recent communication was a report issued on 1 January 2011 by an IT unit in the SSI after trying a free-trial version of the software.

These kinds of programs developed by Gamma International and similar companies are simply enabling governments and security agencies in the ruling regimes to violate anyone’s privacy, monitor anyone’s activity and impose censorship. Consequently, helping the governments to fabricate cases against political activists and human rights defenders on charges like “destabilize order”, “defaming state leaders”, “spreading rumors to overthrow the regime” and many other charges that regimes set to minimize the work of civil societies and activists towards better human rights situations.

The same situation with the Telecommunications companies in Egypt whom cooperated with Mubarak’s regime to provide information about activists and disable services.

You can read and download the SSI leaks addressed in this post through this links:

- State Security Internal Communications About Finfisher – Link [Arabic].
- Commercial Offer from Gamma International to State Security – Link [English]
- State Security Internal Communications on Monitoring SMS – Link [Arabic]

Egypt: Blogger Sentenced to 3 Years for Insulting the Military

Ramy Raoof — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:03:57 +0000

Along the many years where the former president Hosni Mubarak ruled the country we didn’t witness large scale of cases where a blogger gets jailed for a blog-post. The first case in Egypt was in 2007 when Kareem Amer was sentenced for 4 years in jail based on blog-posts, he was charged for insulting Islam and Mubarak.

Maikel Nabil

On 6 April 2011, a military tribunal took place against Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil, 26 years-old, on charges of “insulting the military” and yesterday 10 April the court sentenced Nabil for 3 years in prison.

Maikel Nabil is sent to prison over blog-post he wrote about violations committed by the military offices against civilians since the revolution and criticizing the army in Egypt.

During the past few years, Egyptian activists and journalists have broke many taboos through media platforms. The army and military forces was one of the main taboos during Mubarak’s time and is still a “red-line” in the offline media, and now the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is threatening the online community by “punishing” netziens for practicing the right to freedom of expression and speaking about the military behavior.

The army in Egypt is sending a clear message that they don’t accept criticism and the charges against Nabil could be easily set against any other Egyptian netizen and human rights defenders to stop them from addressing human rights violations committed by military officers.

Egypt: Sequence of Communication Shutdown during 2011 Uprising

Ramy Raoof — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:15:07 +0000

25 January 2011 was the day when people of Egypt went to the streets in several proveniences to demonstrate against President Mubarak and the current regime.

Online platforms and social websites were highly utilized by activists to mobilize youth and spread the word before January 25. On the first of day of demonstrations, the government started to crackdown on communication and online platforms to limit the flow of information on what is happening and despite that crackdown, people of Egypt were still able to deliver videos, pictures and thoughts from the demonstrations all over Egypt and it didn’t affect mobilizing people to join peaceful assemblies.

Among many different tactics activists used to spread the multimedia is building tents in Tahrir Square (Downtown, Cairo) and hanging a sign “Gathering Picture and Videos” to compile footage and pictures from demonstrators and uploading them online.

Here is the sequence of communication shutdown by the government starting 25 January (approximate figures):

1. Tuesday 25 January 2011 - 01:30pm: some mobile lines shutdown, twitter.com and bambuser.com blocked in Egypt.

2. Tuesday 25 January 2011 - 08:0pm: network coverage in Tahrir Square shutdown.

3. Wednesday 26 January 2011: twitter.com & bambuser.com accessible (10:30pm) , facebook.com blocked, some mobile lines re-activated.

4. Thursday 27 January 2011 - 09:40pm: short message service (SMS) & Internet connection shutdown (except one Internet service provider where the government moved on it stock exchange and financial process).

5. Friday 28 January 2011: landlines shutdown in some areas in Cairo, satellite Internet connection interrupted and mobile phone calls re-activated.

6. Monday 31 January 2011 - 11:30pm: the last Internet service provider in Egypt shutdown.

7. Wednesday 2 February - 2011, 12:30pm: Internet connection re-activated.

8. Sunday 6 February - 12:35 am: short message service re-activated.

Egypt: Facebook Disables Popular Anti-Torture Page

Ramy Raoof — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:31:06 +0000

Update 1: The deactivated page is back. According to an email received by the page admin, “After reviewing your situation, we have reinstated the page, and you should now be able to see it online.” a facebook representative said.

Screenshot of the deactivated Facebook page - from Google Cache.

On the evening of 25 November, Facebook.com disabled “We Are All Khaled Said” page which got more than 300,000 followers. The page was created after the 28-year-old Egyptian man named Khaled Said was beaten to death in Alexandria by two police officers who wanted to search him under the emergency law, according to El Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, local rights group.

The page administrator utilized the page to post updates on the flow of the case before the court and relevant information related to the incident that happened on the 6th of June 2010, as well as mobilizing people to join peaceful assemblies that took place against torture in Egypt and supporting victims of violence.

After the page was disabled, the administrators of the page mentioned on Twitter:

Facebook blocked the largest fan page defending human rights in Egypt. The ugly side of censorship!

It’s worth to mention that in August 2009, a Kuwaiti newspaper published a story on a new security department to monitor Facebook in Egypt.

It’s still not clear why the Facebook administration took this sudden step and whether there was any consultation that took place with the Egyptian company Connect Ads, the Facebook.com official representative for Middle East and North Africa.

The latest event on the page was inviting people to join the “Angry Friday” that will take place tomorrow, Friday 26 November, to support victims of torture and violence.

Egypt: Netizen Facing Military Trial for Creating Facebook Page

Ramy Raoof — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 12:13:37 +0000

Update 1: On November 30th, 2010, the military court sentenced Ahmed to 6 months imprisonment for broadcasting secrets of defense on Facebook.

For the second time in Egypt an internet user is going to face a military trial. Ahmed Hassan Basiouny is facing a military trial this month under case number 4405/2010 after being accused by the military prosecution for:

“Broadcasting secrets of defense via the Internet, and publishing news and information related to the Armed Forces of Egypt by creating a website titled Packing and Recruitment Management in Egypt and answering questions of youth applying to the recruitment”

Screenshot of the facebook page.

The military prosecution asked to punish Basiouny according to laws 80 1/2 and 85/3 of the Penal Code and law 5/B of the Military Justice Code.

Basiouny created a Facebook page late in 2009 to provide assistance and guidelines on recruitment.

Hisham Mubarak Law Center, local rights group, invited [Ar] human rights organization to form legal defense team to defense Basiouny before the military court.

It’s worth to mention the first time an internet user faced a military trial was earlier this year when an Egyptian blogger was sent to a military court for a blog post.

Egypt: New Regulations to Monitor bulk SMS Content

Ramy Raoof — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:26:58 +0000

The Egyptian National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) decided to set a new regulation in Egypt on 11 October forcing all companies sending mass short text messages (SMS) to mobile phones to obtain a license from national bodies as well as getting an approval on the content of the message before sending it from special personages, whom will be appointed to monitor SMS services.

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, companies providing SMS service must now obtain approval from the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Press Council before sending out to subscribers.

Few days later, The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), local rights group, issued a case against the NTRA to rescind the new regulation.

Mahmoud el-Gweini, adviser to the Egyptian telecommunication minister, told The Associated Press that the decision “was not meant to curb political activity“, while one of the SMS provider companies told [AR] AFTE that companies are still allowed to provide the service as long as the SMS content isn’t political, otherwise the company won’t be allowed to provide the service.

The new regulating is shaping a new border on the free flow of information and right to information in Egypt, since several groups including political parties and newspapers are using SMS services to spread information and disseminate news.

Egypt: Security Department to Monitor Facebook and Support the Government

Ramy Raoof — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:59:19 +0000

On 1st July, 2010, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior (MOI) has reportedly established a special department to monitor Facebook activities and content in Egypt according to the administrative decision 765.

Based on the Kuwaiti newspaper Aljarida, this new MOI department works according to three shifts/8 hours each. Each shift is composed of 15 individuals: 2 police officers, 10 secretaries of police and 3 engineers. The main task of this group is to monitor Facebook content like groups, pages and chat and to publish reports countering online criticism of current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak or his son Gamal.

An anonymous security source mentioned to Aljarida that Egyptian security authorities used to censor Facebook among other websites but the MOI paid special attention to Facebook in 2008 after the first call for 6 April Strike that was organized on Facebook.

The anonymous source mentioned to the newspaper that there are groups of paid young Egyptians from the National Democratic Party (NDP) youth, to defense the NDP and the government. According to the same source they have already created 166 Facebook group in support of president's son Gamal Mubarak and 38 other groups supporting his father, resident Hosni Mubarak.

In February 2010, the Egyptian digital advertising company Connect Ads announced to be the Facebook official representative for Middle East and North Africa and I wonder what is the current relation between the MOI department and Connect Ads, because at some point the MOI will need to collect personal information about the Facebook users in Egypt.

It will not be strange if a Facebook user faced a trial or get arrested based on his or her online activity in Egypt, like the trial taking place against Egyptian activists facing several charges, such as the misuse of world wide web.

The numbers of Facebook users in Egypt jumped to 3.8 million, according to a recent report by E-Marketing. Consequently, there is team of 45 members in Egypt who are monitoring the activities of these 3.8 million as well as the monitoring of e-mail .

Egypt: Misuse of World Wide Web, Official Charge Against Activists

Ramy Raoof — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:56:46 +0000

AlKhalifa misdemeanor court will consider the case 8260/2009 on Saturday 22nd of May 2010, in which judge Abdel Fattah Mourad is accusing Ahmed Seif - Director of Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC), Gamal Eid – Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and blogger Amr Gharbeia for “insult, libel, blackmail and abuse of internet services”.

The judge who requested in 2007 to block 51 websites and blogs, is accusing Gharbeia for publishing and not deleting some “insulting” comments left by the blog visitors. Seif, Eid and Gharbeia are all accused to misuse communication means including phone lines and World Wide Web!.

This case is among many other fabricated cases by Abdel Fatah Murad against HMLC, ANRHI as well as against bloggers, human rights defenders and news websites.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Studies said:

Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad enjoys impunity despite being charge with assault on the intellectual property, as he reproduced dozens of pages of the report of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and published them in one of his books. Impunity encouraged him to fabricate more cases against the Arabic Network and Hisham Mubarak Law Center though he was proven to have fabricated two earlier cases.

While cases filed by this judge process quickly , the communiqué submitted by Gamal Eid on abuse of intellectual property in April 2007 is still in the drawers of public prosecution. It seems that justice in Egypt turns a blind eye on a judge abusing rights of others and violating the law when he should be trying to prove his innocence.

This judge has previously fabricated an insult and libel case against Gamal Eid and the bloggers, Manal Hassan and Alaa Seif in 2007. All three were acquitted on first instance and on appeal as the court was certain of fabrication.