US Embassy in Cairo Scrubs Twitter Feed of Link to Daily Show Commentary on Egypt

Internet users can close down Facebook pages, correct blog entries or scrub Twitter logs, but global observers take notice of prominent censorship. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show came to the defense of Bassem Youssef, an Egyptian comedian under investigation for mocking Egypt’s president and Islam. Youssef’s show in Egypt adopts Stewart’s format of a mock news show, exposing hypocrisy and foolishness of news media and politicians. The US Embassy in Cairo sent out a Twitter link to Stewart’s skit criticizing Egypt’s president – then pulled it down when Egyptian authorities fired back over Twitter. The missing link launched more criticism and led “inevitably, to a parody account,” report Robert Mackey and Liam Stack for the New York Times. “As The Lede reported last year, the embassy’s Twitter feed has been used to engage critics of American policy in the region in dialogue and to aggressively rebut rumors on Twitter.” Engaging in instant, concise savoir faire over Twitter is the new challenge for diplomats. – YaleGlobal