Egypt Comes Back Online, Even as Protests Turn Violent

After nearly a weeklong Internet blackout in Egypt amid anti-government protests, the Egyptian Web is back online this morning. Web monitoring firm Renesys reported via blog post that at about 11:29 a.m. Cairo time (4:29 a.m. EST) Egyptian ISPs returned to service, a report that has since been echoed by several other sources.

The Egyptian government pulled the plug on Egyptian ISPs last Friday in an effort to deny protesters social networking and communications tools like Facebook and Twitter.