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Text Messages Blocked In Sri Lanka out of Security Concerns

by Will Safer on February 4, 2008 at 02:38 PM

Text messaging in Sri Lanka was suspended Monday by that country's government for fear that Tamil Tiger rebels would use the system to scare people away from independence day celebrations.

The country's telecommunications regulator ordered the suspension of SMS text messages for the duration of the celebration and the leading service provider, Dialog, complied.

In the Western world, we often hold Edward Bulwer-Lytton's famous line "The pen is mightier than the sword" to be a hard-fast truth but it seems in some tension-filled regions the pen -- or in this case the text -- could be used to instill fear, or worse.

While most of the country engaged in celebrations, suspected rebels blew up a passenger bus, killing 13 people. This follows other suicide attacks during the weekend.

Besides blocking text messages, the government also blocked main roads throughout Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo.

From Textually.org.


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Tags: breaking+news, freedom, government, rebel, safety, sri lanka, SriLanka, text, texting, top

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