Vodafone Group plc finds itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place as it was forced to send text messages to its Egyptian subscribers encouraging them to “confront traitors and criminals” as the Egyptian government tries to quell demonstrators who are demanding the country’s president step down.
Evidently, the Egyptian government has the power to force all of the operators under an emergency powers provision. While this has to disturb any operator, it brings to mind how powerful communication services are – and how they can be manipulated by governments. Egypt ordered the Internet shut down for a while during the early days of demonstrations, but couldn’t stop Twitter. The Indian government is trying to strong arm Research In Motion Ltd. so it can access people’s e-mail accounts. And before anyone gloats too much, the U.S. government had AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. participate in a once-secret surveillance program approved by President Bush and conducted by the National Security Agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (And here I have to give props to Qwest Communications International Inc., which simply said no.)
While I understand that governments will believe they need access to communications to ensure the safety of the country, and I want my country safe, the fact that governments have abused telecom privileges doesn’t sit well. Vodafone is a business; its purpose in Egypt and everywhere else it operates is to serve its customers. Operators provide a vital service but with the privatization of telecom networks all over the world, for the most part, governments have to respect that line. In the case of Egypt, the least the government could have done was point out that it was the government delivering the message, not the telecom operator. Wishful thinking, I know. I just hope that wireless operators aren’t punished by customers for delivering a message they never wanted to.
