As Egyptian protestors gather for a fourth day of mass demonstrations on Friday, the government appears to be making a major push to restrict communications. Almost every internet service provider in the country stopped working Thursday evening and sms text messaging from mobile phones appears to have been blocked as well. On Friday morning around 10 am, multiple mobile phone networks also appeared to be blocked.

The government moves seemed to designed to achieve two goals: preventing the protest organisers from using Twitter and Facebook to organise the demonstrations, and restricting the ability of demonstrators to documents Friday’s events and deliver that information and footage to the outside world.

The push to restrict communications can only be regarded as an ominous sign, and a likely indicator that a harsh crackdown is planned today. I’ll continue to send updates as often as I can. This message is being sent from the BBC radio office, where they have a satellite internet connection.