As Egyptian anti-government protesters battled security forces for a second day, the fight over the flow of information was becoming a fascinating side battle. On Tuesday, when a 10,000 strong protest overwhelmed police forces and took control of Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the Twitter social network abruptly stopped working. Telecom company representatives here have confirmed that the site was being blocked by the government.

Activists immediately began swapping recommendations for programs and applications that would evade the government’s Twitter block. I’ve been using VPN Express on my iPhone, and it has proven effective so far.

Today came another government move to restrict cyber-activism. The Facebook social network has apparently been blocked as of about 3 pm Cairo time.