And then the men with guns tell you to do it anyway

In February 2011, Egypt was embroiled in a political revolution. The Armed Forces issued a message to the Egyptian people, asking the "honest and loyal men" to confront traitors and criminals and protect the nation. Vodafone, the Egyptian mobile network provider, sent a series of pro-regime messages with a hint of violence. This came after internet access was cut off for a week.

Vodafone stated that it had no legal or practical options but to comply with the authorities' demands. The company sent another statement later, explaining that the Egyptian authorities could instruct mobile networks to send messages to the public under the Telecoms Act. This happened during the protests, and Vodafone protested to the authorities about the unacceptable nature of the messages.

Years later, the author recalls a conversation with a former Vodafone employee in Egypt. The employee recounted how they built the SMS infrastructure, secured it, and prevented spam. One day, armed men arrived and demanded the employees follow the orders. The employee refused to yield, but in movies, the subordinate usually opens the safe and gets shot.

The author questions whether technologists could build secure infrastructure that cannot be abused, even when the authorities instruct them to do so. The concept of "Civic Hygiene" was coined in 2010 by technologist Bruce Schneier, emphasizing the importance of building technologies that cannot be misused for a police state. The author discusses the balance between privacy, security, and the need to access data after death, as well as the safety of memes, protest photos, and reporting dangerous drivers.

The author questions whether the networks had to send a message about wildfires in August 2026, given that there is no legal requirement for operators to process these messages.