Vodafone Says It Was Instructed to Send Pro-Mubarak Messages to Customers

[aGameOfThrones]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-03/vodafone-ordered-to-send-egyptian-government-messages-update1-.html

Vodafone Group Plc was ordered to send mobile-phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront “traitors and criminals” as demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The Egyptian authorities can instruct the local mobile network operators, which also include Etisalat and France Telecom SA’s Mobinil service, to send messages under emergency powers provisions, Vodafone said today. The messages were not written by the mobile-phone operators, it said.

“The Armed Forces urge Egypt’s loyal men to confront the traitors and the criminals and to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt,” said a Feb. 1 text message sent on Vodafone’s network and obtained by Bloomberg News.

[Kludge]

"... A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt appealed to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor." Another urged Egyptians to attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."

In a statement, Vodafone Group PLC said that the messages had been drafted by Egyptian authorities and that it had no power to change them. ..." [src (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EGYPT_CELL_PHONES?SITE=KMOV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)]

Bump