Signal, the encrypted messaging app that is used heavily by journalists and activists in Egypt, says the authorities in the Mideast country are blocking it. Signal's owner, Open Whisper Systems, made the announcement on a Twitter posting late on Monday.
The posting says: "We've been investigating over the weekend, and have confirmed that Egypt is censoring access to Signal." It also says it would begin "deploying censorship circumvention" in the coming weeks. It was not immediately possible to reach officials to comment on the ban.
Disrupting communications is not uncommon in Egypt and in 2011, authorities cut the internet in an attempt to disrupt plans for massive demonstrations against the then-President Hosni Mubarak. The action backfired and millions still took to the streets in a popular uprising that ousted Mubarak.
