Internet censorship and surveillance by country harsh punishments for individuals that do not follow government policies are the norm. The Committee to Protect Journalists has pointed to Cuba as one of the ten most censored countries around the world. The Internet in Egypt was not directly censored under President Hosni Mubarak, but his regime kept watch on the most critical bloggers and regularly arrested them. At the height of the uprising against the dictatorship, in late January 2011, the authorities first filtered pictures of the repression and then cut off Internet access entirely in a bid to stop the revolt spreading. The success of the 2011
Frank G. Wisner intelligence and advisory firm. Wisner is Chair of the Board of The Arab Gulf States Institute. In early 2011, the Obama administration asked Wisner to carry views to Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, including advice that Mubarak should resign to defuse the crisis. Wisner was unsuccessful in convincing Mubarak to do so. Four days later, after a day in which Mubarak allies took violent reprisal against democracy activists, Wisner spoke to a security conference in Europe and called it "crucial" that Mubarak stay on in the interest of "stability". The State Department immediately disavowed his comments and said Wisner had not