September 2019 in Egypt, what we know so far about Internet censorship

The information below is in the time range from 20 September to 27 September 2019.

In recent weeks, Calls have been made in Egypt to demonstrate against President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in recent weeks. Internet users in Egypt have faced inaccessibility to some applications and news websites. This blog post provides information on the state of Internet censorship in Egypt over the past few days.

UPDATES:

27 Sept 2019

A few days ago, the Egyptian authorities tried to block the websites of instant messaging applications.

Until now, There are 14 blocked websites (the website , not the application).

On Vodafone :

• wickr.com
• signal.org
• wire.com

On We Network:

• wechat.com
• line.me
• surespot.me
• pryvatenow.com
• skype.com
• icq.com
• groupme.com
• kik.com
• voxer.com
• zello.com
• trillian.im

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Twitter

Likely that the Egyptian authorities had tried to block the Twitter website on the Vodafone network (ASN: AS36935) WE Network (ASN: AS8452) and Orange Network (ASN: AS37069) Network Communications (AS36992).

• The Twitter platform uses the domain (https://twitter.com) as its primary domain.
• The main Twitter domain uses IP addresses: 104.244.42.65 and 104.244.42.129. These IPs are the same IP addresses that Twitter uses on Android.
• A group of Twitter domains that share the same IP addresses have been found:
  • • • • jhpath.com
    • twitter.com
    • twitter.eus
    • twitter.hk
    • twitter.jp
    • Twitter.org
    • equity-app.com
    • milchreis.xyz
    • twittertrademarks.com
    • twopensource.com

Notes

• Twitter and its mobile app are likely to be blocked in Egypt.
• All domains sharing the same IP address above are likely to be blocked.
• The blocking of Twitter is intermittent, sometimes accessible and sometimes inaccessible.
• Sometimes there has been a slow access to Twitter, and Vodafone is likely to throttle the access to the website (throttling).
• On the Vodafone network: the IP addresses (104.244.42.65 and 104.244.42.129) were blocked based on DNS Tampering. While the domains that share the same IP address are blocked based on HTTP blocking.
• On WE: The twitter.com domain is blocked based on TCP / IP blocking. All domains that share the same Twitter IP address are also likely to have been blocked.
• On Orange: the twitter.com domain was blocked based on HTTP blocking.
• On Etisalat: the twitter.com domain is blocked based on TCP / IP blocking.  All domains that share the same Twitter IP address are also likely to have been blocked.

Facebook Messenger

The Egyptian authorities are likely to have tried to block Facebook Messenger on Vodafone (ASN: AS36935) and WE (ASN: AS8452).

• Facebook Messenger uses the domain (https://www.messenger.com) as its primary domain.
• Facebook and its services, including Facebook Messenger, use content distribution networks (CDNs).This means that the IP address used by Facebook varies depending on various factors, such as geographic location.
• The message “Waiting for network” for users from Egypt appeared on the Messenger application on Android and the message “messenger is currently unavailable” on the web browsers on the computer.

Notes

• Facebook Messenger website and its mobile app are likely to be blocked in Egypt.
• Blocking Facebook Messenger is intermittent, sometimes accessible and sometimes inaccessible.
• Slow access to Facebook Messenger has been observed, which is likely to be throttling
• On Vodafone and WE: Facebook Messenger blocked based on  HTTP blocking

 Wire

The Egyptian authorities are likely to have tried to block WIRE  the Vodafone network (ASN: AS36935).

• Wire is an instant messaging application that provides end-to-end encryption.
• The Wire app uses a range of domains to work normally (sending and receiving messages and voice calls):

https://prod-nginz-https.wire.com/

https://prod-nginz-ssl.wire.com/

https://prod-assets.wire.com/

https://wire-app.wire.com/

https://clientblacklist.wire.com/

• The above domains use variable IP addresses provided by Amazon AWS.

Notes

• Weir app is likely to be blocked in Egypt.
• WIRE’s blocking is intermittent,ometimes accessible and sometimes inaccessible.
• On Vodafone: It has been noted that the domains on which WIRE depend on its work are blocked based on  HTTP blocking.
• The Wire.com website has been blocked on Vodafone’s network.
• It is noted that all subdomains of Wire.com have been blocked on the Vodafone network.

The BBC website

The Egyptian authorities are likely to have blocked the BBC website on Vodafone (ASN: AS36935), WE (ASN: AS8452), Etisalat (AS36992) and Orange (ASN: AS37069).

• On Vodafone: Domain (bbc.com) blocked based HTTP blocking
• On the WE: domain (bbc.com) is blocked based on HTTP blocking while domain (www.bbc.com) is blocked based on DNS tampering
• On Orange: The domain (www.bbc.com) is blocked based on DNS tampering
• On Etisalat: The domain (bbc.com) is blocked based on HTTP blocking.

Alhurra website

The Egyptian authorities are likely to have blocked Alhurra’s website on Vodafone (ASN: AS36935) and Wei (ASN: AS8452).

• On Vodafone: Domain blocked (https://www.alhurra.com) based on  HTTP blocking
• On WE: Domain (https://www.alhurra.com) is blocked based on DNS tampering

Geo-blocking

On September 24, Facebook and Twitter were monitored for geographic blocking in downtown Cairo and Tahrir Square on various mobile Internet networks.