Facebook says no major changes in Egypt traffic

An anti-government protester gestures during clashes with police in Cairo January 26, 2011.

LONDON (Reuters) - Facebook is aware of reports of disruption to its service in Egypt but said it had not seen any major changes in traffic from the Middle Eastern country, while Twitter said its service was being blocked for the second consecutive day.

"Egypt continues to block Twitter & has greatly diminished traffic," Twitter said in a statement, adding that some users were using "apps/proxies" to successfully send Tweets, as the 140-character messages on Twitter are known.

Egyptians had complained that Facebook, Twitter and other websites were being blocked and mobile networks disrupted. Egypt's government denied that social media websites were disrupted, saying it respected freedom of expression.

"Having looked into it, we are aware of reports of disruption to service but have not seen any major changes in traffic from Egypt," a London spokeswoman for Facebook said in a statement.

Thousands of Egyptians have defied a government ban to protest against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule and have clashed with police, who have fired tear gas at the crowds and dragged away demonstrators.

Facebook and Twitter have been key means of communication for protesters.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan with additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; editing by Myra MacDonald)