Egypt's government faced international criticism when it blocked Internet service to try to suppress the uprising there. 
埃及政府为镇压国内的暴动封锁了互联网服务，此举遭到国际社会的批评。

But Egyptian activists found other ways to get their message out.
但是埃及的活动人士找到了别的向外界传递信息的方法。

Google, Twitter and a company called SayNow launched a service last week called speak2tweet. 
谷歌、Twitter和一个名叫SayNow的公司上周推出了一个称为speak2tweet的服务。

They wanted to give Egyptians a way to communicate with the outside world.
他们希望能给埃及人一个跟外界联系的途径。

There are phone numbers for people to call to record a message. 
人们拨打电话号码，说出信息让其记录。

An audio file is then posted to Twitter. 
然后这份语音文件被传到Twitter上。

Anyone can listen to these voice-to-tweet messages at twitter.com/speak2tweet.
任何人都可在twitter.com/speak2tweet网站上收听这些向twitter发出的声音信息。

The phone numbers are listed on that page, and people can also call them to hear the tweets.
这些电话号码被列在当前网页上，人们还可以拨打号码收听这些信息。

Ujjwal Singh and AbdelKarim Mardini launched SayNow as an American-based company 2005. 
尤瓦尔·辛格和阿比代尔卡里姆·马尔迪尼于2005年共同创办SayNow公司，总部设在美国。

Thousands of celebrities use the service to connect with their fans. 
数千知名人士用该公司提供的服务来跟他们的粉丝进行交流。

Google purchased SayNow at the end of January, just days before teaming with Twitter to create the new speak2tweet service.
1月底谷歌收购了SayNow，数日后便同推特合作推出了新式的speak2tweet服务。

Most of the calls have come from inside Egypt and most are in Arabic.
大多数拨打的电话来自埃及境内，且大多用的是阿拉伯语。

Volunteers are translating the messages into English, Spanish and French at the website Alive in Egypt.
在“活在埃及”网站上，志愿者将这些信息翻译成英语、西班牙语和法语。

People are also showing their support for the protesters through pages on Facebook. 
人们还在Facebook上对埃及抗议者表示了支持。

Facebook says it has five million users in Egypt, including one million on mobile devices.
Facebook表示他们在埃及有500万用户，其中包括100万移动设备用户。

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also played a part in the protests that forced Tunisia's president from office last month.
上月突尼斯总统在抗议活动中被迫下台，Facebook、Twitter和YouTube之类的社交网站也起到了一定的作用。

Jillian York is with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. 
哈佛大学伯克曼互联网与社会中心的吉莉安·约克称。

She says the use of social media has been different in the movements in Egypt and Tunisia.
他说就社交媒体的使用而言，埃及和突尼斯的反政府运动是不同的。

"In Tunisia it was used mostly as a means to disseminate information about what was happening on the ground, often to cover the gap where traditional media left off. 
突尼斯人主要是把这些媒体当作传递当时当地信息的手段，经常是用来填补传统媒体没有报道的信息缺口。

In Egypt we've seen people using social media to organize.
而在埃及，人们则用社交媒体来进行组织活动。

Jillian York is also a member of the OpenNet Initiative, a group that studies Internet censorship and spying. 
吉莉安·约克还是“开放网络倡议”团体的一员，该团体致力于互联网审查和监视研究。

She says the Egyptian shutdown had a much wider effect than past Internet bans in Nepal, Burma and China's Xinjiang province.
约克表示，此次埃及关闭互联网服务产生的影响要比以前尼泊尔、缅甸和中国新疆封锁互联网大得多。

"The Internet penetration rate of those three places is fairly low. 
以上三个地区的互联网普及率相当低。

And I think Egypt's Internet community is about twenty times the size of those three places combined, and so this is the first time that something like this has had such a huge impact on Internet users."
而我认为埃及的互联网社群差不多是这三个地区总和的20倍，所以第一次封锁互联网对网络用户产生了如此大的影响。

Internet service returned last Wednesday in Egypt after a five-day shutdown. 
埃及的互联网服务在关闭5天后，于上周三得到恢复。

Experts at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated that the action cost Egypt's economy at least $90 million.
经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的专家估计此举至少给埃及经济造成9000万美元的损失。