WASHINGTON - GOOGLE, Facebook and Twitter, breaking with the usual practice of corporate silence, are speaking out forcefully against the Internet blockade by the Egyptian authorities.
As Egypt is rocked by continuing protests against President Hosni Mubarak, the three companies spawned by the Internet have criticised the attempt by the authorities to sever the nation of 80 million people from the Web.
While corporate responsibility has been a front-burner issue since companies were pressured into cutting ties with apartheid South Africa decades ago, experts said the statements and moves by the three Web giants were unusual.
'Usually with most corporations the issue is what's going to make profits, not necessarily what's going to do good for the world,' said Benjamin Hermalin a finance professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. 'Particularly given a situation of political uncertainty it would be very strange for companies to take bets on one side because if the other side wins they're in deep trouble,' Mr Hermalin said.
The uncertainty in Egypt did not stop Facebook, which had about five million active users in the country before the Internet shutdown, from issuing a statement saying that 'no one should be denied access to the Internet.'
'Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community,' Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said. -- AFP
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