Vodafone slams Egypt for sending pro-Mubarak texts

Vodafone has accused the Egyptian government of hijacking its network to send pro-regime messages that appear to incite citizens to fight the anti-government protesters who have forced the country's dictator Hosni Mubarak to say he will step down in September.

The Egyptian government told mobile providers last Friday to turn off their networks in an attempt to deprive anti-Mubarak protesters of a key organising tool.

Vodafone restored voice calls the following day, but only switched data services back on yesterday – a move that allowed its customers to access websites on their phones once more. However, the company’s text messaging service is still unavailable.

In the meantime, mysterious text messages have been sent, apparently from Vodafone. According to photographs posted on this Flickr account, one reads:

"Youth of Egypt, beware rumours and listen to the sound of reason - Egypt is above all so preserve it."

Another, dated February 2, reads: "To every mother-father-sister-brother, to every honest citizen preserve this country as the nation is forever."

And the one that appears to incite violence against anti-government protesters reads: "The Armed Forces ask Egypt's honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honour and our precious Egypt."

Yesterday, what had been a week of largely peaceful anti-government protests descended into violence when a large pro-Mubarak mob attacked the president's opponents in central Cairo's Tahrir Square. Eight people have been killed in the violence so far.

In a statement, Vodafone denied any responsibility for the texts: "The Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt.

"They have used this since the start of the protests. These messages are not scripted by any of the mobile network operators and we do not have the ability to respond to the authorities on their content."

Vodafone says it has protested to the government and told it the messages are "unacceptable".

The mobile phone company is apparently not alone in being co-opted by the Egyptian authorities. Al Jazeera's producer in Cairo reported yesterday that staff at the Hilton were checking all the rooms for cameras and confiscating them. ·